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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




GK.OKGK WA.SHIMJIOX. 



A HISTORY 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES 

FOR YOUNG AMERICANS 

From the Landing of Cohnnbus to the Inaztguration 
of Benjamin Harriso7t 



BY (, -f^-^ 

LYNDS EfloNES 

w 



WITH 230 ILLUSTRATIONS 




JUL 1918890, 



GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 

New York : 9 Lafayette Place 

London, Manchester and Glasgow 



IN UNIFORM STYIE. 



History of the United States. 
History of England. 

Each 1 60 pages, quarto. With numerous 
illustrations. Boards, lithographed double 
cover, each, 75 cents. 

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, 

New York : g Lafayette Place ; 
London, Manchester, and Glasgow. 

Copyrighted, 1889, bv Joseph L. Blamire. 



Eqs 



PREFACE. 



Little doubt now remains that, some five hundred years before Columbus set .sail on his 
famous voyage, this continent was visited by the Northmen, or people from Norway and Iceland. 
They were a venturesome, sea-loving race, and on one of their many bold western expeditions they 
chanced upon Greenland and then upon the mainland. They made, however, no permanent settle- 
ment here, and the knowledge of their discovery does not appear to have travelled much beyond 
their own country, and seems to have been soon forgotten even there. It became a lost discovery, 
with little bearing upon the history of the New World and none whatever upon that of the United 
States. Our history — the history of the American people — only dates from the discovery, or redis- 
covery, of a Western Hemisphere by Columbus. 

This closing year of centennial celebrations seems a peculiarly fitting occasion to attempt 
once more to excite in the youth of our country an interest in its past history. We are seeking in 
these days to do honor in every way to the Fathers of the Republic. Surely we can pay them no 
greater reverence than by retelling the story of their deeds as examples for our children to emulate. 
And if from th&jeading of this volume, necessarily limited to a narrative of only the most notable 
incidents which have marked the progress of the nation, a desire is awakened in the minds of young 
Americans to learn more of the land to which it is their happy fortune to belong ; if a purer 
patriotism is aroused, and a stronger purpose formed to live a life worthy of the founders of the 
Union, its object will be fully accomplished. 

LYNDS E. JONES. 

Brooklyn, N. Y., 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

How Columbus Found a New World, . i 

CHAPTER II. 
Followers in Columbus's Track, . . 5 

CHAPTER III. 

First Attempts to Settle North America, 
and their Failure, .... 9 



CHAPTER IV. 






The Thirteen Colonies 


Virginia, . 






11 


New York, . 








'5 


Massachusetts, . 








iS 


Connecticut, 








23 


Rhode Island, . 








25 


New Hampsffire, 








26 


Maryland, . 








26 


New Jersey, 








27 


Pennsylvania, . 








28 


Delaware, . 








29 


North Carolina, 








30 


South Carolina, . 








31 


Georgia, 








32 



CHAPTER V. 

The Whites and the Indians, 

CHAPTER VI. 

The French and Indian Wars, 

CHAPTER VII. 
Separation from England, 



36 



41 



CHAPTER VIII. 



page 



The Minute-Men at Lexington and at 

Bunker Hill 44 



CHAPTER IX. 

Washington in Command, . 



49 



CHAPTER X. 

The Loss of Philadelphia and the Vic- 
tory at Saratoga 5 s 



CHAPTER XI. 
Aid from France, . 

CHAPTER XII. 



57 



The War in the South and Arnold's 

Treason 59 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Surrender of Cornwallis and the 
Close of the War 61 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Framing the Constitution, •. • .63 



CHAPTER XV. 

Formation OF the New Government under 
Washington ^^4 



CHAPTER XVI. 
The Beginning of Party Politics. . . 67 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Administration of Jefferson, . . 71 



viii 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


PAGE 




The War of 1813 


. 75 


The 1 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Era of Good Feeling and the Mis- 
souri Compromise, 81 



CHAPTER XX. 

The " American System " and Nullifica- 
tion, 85 



CHAPTER XXI. 
Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, . 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Mexican War, 



89 



93 



97 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Anti-Slavery Struggle, 

> 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Outbreak of the Civil War, , 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Events of 1862, loS 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
The Third Year of the War, . 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Nearing the End, 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Return of Peace, 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Reconstruction of the South, 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
Mr. Hayes's Administration, 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
The Most Recent Events, . 



PAGE 

. 114 



119 



. 126 



130 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The Presidency of General Grant, . 134. 



139 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
The Civil Service and the Mormons, . 141 



144 



TABLE OF THE PRESIDENTS, 



147 



TABLE OF ADMISSION OF STATES 14S 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 14^ 



History of the United States. 



CHAPTER I. 



HOW COLUMBUS FOUND A NEW WORLD. 




CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

THERE are two dates in the history of their 
country which no American boy or girl 
should ever forget : one is the year 1492, in which 
America was discovered by Columbus ; the other is 
the year 1776, in which it freed itself from the rule 
of Great Britain and began to govern itself. There 
are many other things which they ought to know 
and which they will have to learn, but these are 
the two which above everything else they should 
know best of all. 

Four hundred years ago there was no person liv- 
ing, except the Indians, who had ever been in Amer- 



ica or who even knew that there was such a coun- 
try. But there was one man who thought there 
otight to be such a country, and who was deter- 
mined to find out for himself whether or not he 
was right in thinking so. Even he did not dream 
that America was a continent by itself. He 
thought that the earth was smaller than it is ; that 
Asia extended a greater distance around it than it 
does ; and that by sailing westward out into the 
ocean, further than any one had ever sailed before, 
he could reach India more easily than could those 




ISABELLA. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



•who had gone there b)' travelling towards the 
east. 

No one believed him ; every one laughed at him ; 
for in those days few people imagined that the 
«arth was round ; they thought that it was flat ; 
and to attempt to get to India by sailing towards 
the west seemed to them about as sensible as to try 
to reach the centre of the earth by flying away from 
it up in a balloon. But Columbus, for that was the 
man's name, did not mind their laughter. He was 
sure that the world was round, and that somewhere 
beyond the great Atlantic Ocean there must be 
land. And he was willing to face any possible dan- 
ger in crossing this unexplored ocean to find this 
unknown land if some one would only fit out for him 
the shi ps which he was too poor to provide himself. 




COLUiMBUS ON HIS CAKAVEL. 



THE EMBARKATION OF COLUMBUS. 

It was many years before he could 
get any one to do this. Those in his 
own countr)', Ital)', refused ; so did 
those in Portugal; -and at first even 
those in Spain. At last, after ten years' 
constant begging. Queen Isabella of 
Spain helped him in obtaining three 
ships with which to make the attempt. 
These ships were all sailing vessels, for 
the use of steam was not at that time 
known. They were called the Santa 
]\laria, the Piiita and the Nina, and 
would be thought nowadays much too 
small for a voyage across the Atlantic, 
but they were fair-sized vessels for the 
time, especially the San/a Marm, which 
was ninety feet long and had a deck 
its entire length, an advantage which 
the others did not share. 

Columbus set sail from Spain, on 
what was to prove the most wonder- 
ful voyage ever made, with one hun- 
dred and twenty men and with food 
enough to last them all a year. The 
men were not very anxious to go, and 
some of them had to be driven on 
board the ships by force. Nor is it 
strange that they showed so little ea- 
gerness in starting on avoyage of which 
they could not know the end, and from 
which the chances seemed so great that 
they might never return. Like most 
men, the sailors cared far more for their 
own safety than they did for any pos- 



HO IV COLUMBUS FOUND A NEW WORLD. 




men about him, who could 
not be trusted but who must 
be watched, with no one to 
consult or to confide in or 
to share anxiety with — who 
can imagine a loftier cour- 
age than that now shown 
by him in still holding fast 
to the same firm belief that 
land must lie to the west- 
ward ? 

For two months and more 
the little boats kept bravely 
on their way across the 
ocean, and then at last, on 
October 12, 1492, the pa- 



COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COUNCIL. 



sible glory they might win, and so their 
fears did not lessen as time passed on 
and the distance between them and 
their homes increased, and Columbus 
had to exert all his powers, coaxing and 
threatening by turns, to persuade them 
to keep on. He dared not let them 
know the true distance they sailed from 
day to day, because he knew that if 
they did learn this they would insist 
upon turning back. Once they did 
plan to seize and throw him overboard 
and then to return to Spain, but fort- 
unately the plot was discovered and 
prevented. ' 

Surely, if ever a man displayed cour- 
age, and courage of the finest and rarest 
kind, that man was Columbus. In spite 
of the jeers and laughter that greeted 
him he had clung steadily to his opin- 
ion that the world was round and that 
there was land beyond the water — and 
did not that take courage ? During the 
weary years when he begged on foot 
from country to country for ships to 
find this land, did it not take courage 
to endure his voluntary poverty and 
the insults and scorn with which his 
requests were refused, and to sufler 
nothing to turn him from the path he 
had marked out for himself.' And now, 
far out at sea, many weeks' journey 
from home, in daily danger from storm 
and tempest, in greater danger from the 




COLUMBUS IN CHAINS. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



tience and the faith of Columbus were rewarded by 
a sight of the land he had come so far to seek. 
Though it was but an island that he first saw he 
was content for the time, knowing that the main 
shore could not be far distant. With tears of thank- 
fulness and a heart full of solemn joy he landed 
with his men, and, kissing the earth, claimed the 
island in the name of the King and Queen of Spain, 
whose flag he carried in his hand. Supposing that 
this island, which he named San Salvador (and 
which is one of the Bahamas), was off the coast of 
India, he called the natives, who had watched with 
the greatest astonishment the Europeans approach 
and land, Indians, the name which they have re- 
tained to the present time, though it was known 
long ago that their country was on the opposite 
side of the world from India. 

Before returning to Spain, Columbus visited 
some of the West India islands but did not touch 
the mainland. On his second voyage from Spain, 
in which he had a fleet of seventeen vessels with 
fifteen hundred men, he discovered the Windward 
Islands and planted a colony on Haj^i. It was not 
until his third voyage, in 1498, that he reached the 
continent, landing near the Orinoco River in South 
America. Finally, on his fourth and last voyage, 
he reached North America. He still supposed that 
these were the eastern shores of Asia, nor did it 



become known until after his death that instead of 
discovering a new passage to India he had discov- 
ered what was of far greater importance, a New 
World. 

Beyond his satisfaction in proving to the world 
that he was right, and in adding to the world's 
knowledge and future wealth, Columbus gained 
nothing from his great discovery. On his return 
from his first voyage he was received with great 
honor. On his third voyage he returned home in 
chains. His best friend. Queen Isabella, was dead, 
and King Ferdinand, disappointed that the wealth 
which he expected from the New World did not flow 
into his treasury at once, was indifferent to him and 
neglected him. Even the colony which he himself 
had founded on Hayti, and whose governor it was 
that had previously sent him to Spain in chains, 
disowned him and would not allow him to land on 
the island when he stopped there on his last voy- 
age. Worn out and broken-hearted, he died in 
1506, seventy years old. After his death King Fer- 
dinand did him tardy justice by having a monu- 
ment placed over his grave on which were these 
words: "To Castile and Leon Columbus 
GAVE A New World. " Two hundred years later 
his body was brought from Spain and placed in the 
cathedral at Havana, that it might rest in the New 
World he had discovered. 




INDIAN BOATS AT THE TIME OK COLUMBUS. 



FOLLOWERS IN COLUMBUS'S TRACK. 



CHAPTER II. 



FOLLOWERS IN COLUMBUS'S TRACK. 



Columbus reached the mainland on his third 
voyage in 1498, but he was not the first to do so. 
When the news of his discovery became known on 
his return from his first voyage it aroused great in- 
terest and excitement throughout all 
Europe, and other expeditions were im- 
mediately sent out to make further dis- 
coveries. Among these was one under 
the direction of an Italian named 
Americus Vespucius, who visited South 
America in 1497, and another under 
command of an Englishman named 
John Cabot, who with his three sons 
landed on Labrador a little later in the 
same year. So that though the credit 
and the glory of the discovery without 
doubt belong to Columbus alone, others 
were before him in actually reaching 
both North and South America. 

It would seem but just that if Colum- 
bus was to receive neither riches nor 
honors for his discovery that at least 
his name might have been given to the 
country that became known through 
his untiring exertions. But even this 
has been denied him, and the New 
World has been called after the man 
who was the first to land upon the 
continent, Americus Vespucius. It is 
only fair to add that Americus himself 
had nothing to do with this, but that 
the name was given to it by others. 

Columbus, Americus and Cabot hav- 
ing led the way, others soon followed 
in their steps. Among the first to do 
so was a son of John Cabot, Sebastian 
by name, who had accompanied his 
father when he landed on Labrador in 
1497. Sebastian made two voyages be- 
sides the one with his father, during 
which he explored Hudson's Bay and 
followed the coast from Newfoundland 
to Maryland. He was the first to suspect that 
Columbus was wrong in thinking the eastern shores 
of Asia had been reached ; he believed, what was 
soon found to be the fact, that the discovery was 



that of a new continent. The voyages of the 
Cabots are especially important, as they were the 
chief ground for England's claim to the greater 
part of North America, and were the reason why 




AMERICUS VESPUCIUS. 



so many more colonies from England settled there 
than from any other country. For in those days it 
was the custom to add any newly discovered land 
to the country under whose flag the discoverer 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



sailed. This was done whether the natives liked 
it or not ; generally they did not like it, but that 
made no difference to the white men, who seemed 
to think that the natives had no rights to the land 
although they and their fathers had owned it for 
centuries. 

Sebastian Cabot received a very different wel- 
come on his return home from that given to Co- 
lumbus. The King of England gave him a pension 
and every one made much of him. But this respect 
does not seem to have extended beyond his life, for 
history does not tell when or where he died, and 
though " he gave England a continent, no one 
knows his grave.'' 

Among the wonderful stories told and believed 
in Europe at this time was one of a magical foun- 
tain, said to be somewhere in the New World, 
though no one knew just where, the waters of 
which, it was declared, would make forever young 
whoever drank of them. It was in search of this 
" fountain of youth " that a Spaniard named Ponce 
de Leon, who had been a companion of Columbus 
on his second voyage, set sail not long after Cabot 




BALBOA DISCOVERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



SEBASTIAN CABOT. 



had made his discoveries. Though he 
did not find this "elixir of life," he did 
find a land blossoming with beautiful 
flowers, which, as the day on which he 
landed was Easter (15 12), called in 
Spanish "Pascua Florida" {feast of 
/lowers), he named Florida, and took 
possession of in the name of the King 
of Spain. i 

The zeal of the early explorers for 
their own country, and their desire 
to add to its power and extent, some- 
times caused them to do very queer 
and absurd things. The year after 
Ponce de Leon discovered Florida, 
another Spaniard, Balboa, crossed the 
isthmus of Darien, and to his intense 
surprise found there was another ocean 
on the further side of it. Wading into 
it up to his waist, he waved his sword 
above his head and boldly proclaimed 
' the King of Spain the owner and 
master of that vast body of water, and 
swore to defend his rights to it against 
all comers. Balboa gave to it the 
name of the " Sea of the South," but 
it was finally called the Pacific Ocean, 



FOLLOWERS IN COLUMBUS' S TRACK. 



under the mistaken belief that it was more peace- 
ful and less stormy than the Atlantic. 

Other Spaniards in the meantime explored Cen- 
tral and South America, the West Indies and other 
islands near the coast. Mexico was seized and con- 
quered by Cortez and Peru by Pizarro, and their 
wealth added to the riches of the Spanish crown. 
The governor of the Spanish colony which had 
been founded on Cuba, Fer- 
dinand de Soto, hoping to 
find in Florida a country 
as rich as Mexico, headed 
an expedition which land- 
ed there in search of gold 
in 1539. After wandering 
about for two years he 
reached the Mississippi Riv- 
er, but without finding the 
gold he sought. Disap- 
pointed at his failure he 
turned homewards, but died 
of fever on the way and 
was buried by his follow- 
ers in the waters of the 
river he had discovered. 

The southern part of the 
continent received most at- 
tention from the Spaniards, 
as there was to be found 
the gold which was their 

great object in coming to America. This naturally 
led to their settlement there and to its gradually 
passing under their control. Sometimes this was 
done by fierce wars, as in the case of Peru and 
Mexico, and sometimes peaceably with little or no 
trouble from the natives. The final result was that 
all of Central and South America became Spanish 



excepting Brazil, which fell to Portugal, the only- 
possession of that country in the New World. 

But all of the discoveries and explorations in 
the early days of American history were not made 
by the Spanish and English ; France did her share, 
and a very important share it was. As early as 
1504, French fishing vessels visited the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, and two years later a rough map of the 





DE SOTO. 



DE SOTO DISCOVERING THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Gulf was prepared for the use of these fishermen 
by a Frenchman named Denys. 

In 1524 an expedition was sent out from France 
under command of Verrazzano, which explored 
the coast from South Carolina to Nova Scotia, enter- 
ing on the way the harbors both of New York and 
Newport. Verrazzano wrote a very full description 
of the Atlantic coast, the most complete of any 
made at that time. It is still in existence and 
sounds very strange now, but was remarkably accu- 
rate for that period, when so little was known about 
this country. Ten years after he made his voyage, 
another Frenchman, Cartier, came here and sailed 
up the St. Lawrence River (so called from Cartier's 
entering it on the day of that saint) a distance of 
fifteen hundred miles. He gave the name of Mon- 
treal to an Indian village he found on the banks 
of the river, and the name of New France to all of 
the surrounding country. On these voyages and 
discoveries of Verrazzano and Cartier was laid the 
French claim to North America, as the English one 
was based on those of the Cabots. For the present 
these claims were of slight importance and little at- 
tention was paid to them, but later on, when the 



s 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



country became settled, they clashed against each 
other and finally led to war. 

The other nations of Europe took no part in the 
discovery or exploration of America, except Portu- 
gal to a very small extent. No attempt was made 
by the early voyagers to visit the interior of the 
country ; they devoted themselves entirely to study- 



woods which they expected to take back to Europe. 
None of these were found, and at first it seemed as 
though the discovery would prove a barren one. 
Then gold was discovered in South America, and 
Spain eagerly seized it, and soon a rich stream was 
flowing into her treasury that made her the wealthi- 
est country in the Old World. But in what is now 




JACQUES CARTIERi 



ing tne coast, opening a trade with the Indians and 
learning from them what they could about this New 
World, especially its wealth, for it was that which 
brought most of them here. In America they 
hoped to find another India, and to enrich them- 
selves and those who sent them with the pearls and 
rubies, silks and shawls, spices, ivoiy and fragrant 



the United States that kind 'of wealth was not 
found in any quantity until the present century 
was half gone, and her other riches were not known 
or valued for a long period. There was not, there- 
fore, the same inducement to hasten her settlement 
that there was in South America, and so it was 
deferred for many years. 



Fin ST ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE NORTH AMERICA. 



CHAPTER III. 

FIRST ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE NORTH AMERICA AND THEIR FAILURES. 




CHAMPLAIN. 






When we read 
of the great age of 
many of the cities 
in the Old World 
it gives us a strange 
feeling to remem- 
ber that in the 
United States we 
have but two towns 
that can boast of 
being three hun- 
dred years old, 
/ which to Rome, 
or Paris, or Lon- 
don, must seem 
very young indeed. 
And this feeling of 
strangeness grows stronger when we further reflect 
that neither of these two towns or cities was at first 
American or became American (that is, belonged 
what is now the United States) for more than 
o hundred and fifty years after each was founded. 
Not until Columbus and Vespucius and Cabot 
and all of their companions were dead, not until 
their discovery was over a hundred years old was 
any colony started in North America which man- 
aged to live. The Spanish cities of St. Augustine in 
Florida (1565) and Santa Fe in New Mexico (1582) 
are the only exceptions, and they remained Spanish 
until long after the Revolutionary War, and did 
not become part of the United States until the 
present century was out of its teens. 

But it was not through want of trying that our 
country was not settled sooner, for the attempt to 
plant colonies was made time and time again dur- 
ing these hundred years, but without success. The 
French first tried about 1 540 along the St. Law- 
rence River, but the climate was too severe. Then 
they tried (1562) in a milder region, at Port 
Royal in South Carolina. But here they grew 
homesick, quarrelled among themselves, killed their 
commander, and fled back to France. Two years 
later they again made an attempt, choosing this 
time as a site for their new home the St. John's 
River in Florida. For awhile everything went 
well : they got a good start and it looked as though 
this colony might succeed. And perhaps it would 



have done so had not the jealousy of the Spanish 
governor of St. Augustine led him to attack this 
French settlement and put nearly all of its inhabi- 
tants, including the women and children, to death, 
They were, however, soon revenged, for when the 
news of this butchery reached France a private 
soldier of fortune, named De Gourges, fitted out an 
expedition at his own expense, which sailed secretly 
to Fort Carolina (as the settlement on the St. 
John's River had been called), surprised the Span- 
ish garrison in charge, and hung two hundred of 
them to neighboring trees. 

At last, after many failures, in the early years of 
the new century a French colony planted itself 
(1605) in Acadia, the old name of Nova Scotia, 
and shortly after (1608) Champlain, who discovered 
the lake that bears his name, established another 
colony at Quebec. Both of these colonies thrived 
in spite of their wintry situation, and a start once 
made in this region, other Frenchmen settled them- 
selves along the St. Lawrence and gradually took 




PEREZ ON HIS WAY TO SANTA FE 



lO 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



possession of what is now the Dominion of Canada. 
By right of their settlement as well as of Cartier's 
previous discovery and exploration, this became a 
French province and remained so until the close of 
the French and Indian War (1763), when it was 
given to Great Britain, to whom it still belongs. 

The English did not begin their attempts to col- 
onize as early as the French, but they succeeded 
more quickly when they did begin. No English 
expedition of any kind, as far as is known, visited 
America for eighty 
years after the Cabots 
had been here. Then 
England's two great 
sailors, Frobisher and 
Drake, came — the first 
in 1576 and the other 
in 1579 — but their ob- 
ject was to explore 
and not to settle. The 
first attempt to plant 
a colony was made in 
1583 by Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, but it failed, 
and on his way home 
Sir Humphrey lost his 
life. His half-brother. 
Sir Walter Raleigh, a 
favorite of Queen Eliz- 
abeth, next tried, and 
after first sending over 
vessels to explore the 
country and trade with 
the Indians, he de- 
spatched a larger party 
in 1585 to settle on a 
tract of land given 
him by Elizabeth, and 
which in her honor 

(as she was a Virgin Queen) he called Virginia. 
This party landed on Roanoke Island (now part 
of North Carolina) and remained there for a 
year, when it returned to England in a half-starved 
and very unhappy condition. Two years later Ral- 
eigh sent over another party, which also landed on 
Roanoke Island. Here the first white child was 
born in America. She was the granddaughter of 
the governor of the colony and was named after 




SIR WALTER RALEIGH 



her birthplace, Virginia Dare. The ships which 
brought these colonists over after a time sailed 
back to England, intending to return shortly 
with further supplies for the settlers. But one 
thing and another detained them, and they did 
not get back to Roanoke Island for three years. 
When they did arrive the entire colony had disap- 
peared and no trace of it has ever been found, so- 
that to this day the fate of little Virginia and of her 
companions remains unknown. Sir Walter had now 

had enough of Amer- 
ica. Though he had 
never been here him- 
self, he had hoped 
through the colonies 
he had tried to start to 
obtain a fortune out of 
the land given him by 
the Queen. But in- 
stead of making money 
he had lost all he had . 
in fitting out these un- 
lucky expeditions, and 
so he was glad to sell 
the land in order to pay 
his debts. " It was 
bought by some Lon- 
don merchants, who 
had no wish to colo- 
nize, but who proposed 
to open a trade with 
the Indians for tobac- 
co and potatoes, twcv 
things unknown in 
Europe before Ameri- 
ca was discovered, but 
which now are to 
be found in almost 
every town or village 
Another unsuccessful Eng- 
lish attempt to settle was made in 1602 at Buzzard's 
Bay, Massachusetts, by Bartholomew Gosnold, but 
his men would not remain and returned in the very- 
ship that brought them over. Had that succeeded, 
France would not have secured the lead in coloniza- 
tion as she did by her Acadian settlement in 1605. As 
it is, both Spain and France had a foothold in Amer- 
ica before England— but neither retained it as long. 



«^\-^ 



throughout the world. 



THE THIRTEEN^ COLO XI ES. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 




TOBACCO PIANT. 



/. Virg inia. 

So much for the 
English failures in 
founding colonies. 
Now for their suc- 
cesses. 

When King James 
came to the English 
throne on the death 
of Queen Elizabeth, 
he paid no attention 
to the title which she 
had given Raleigh, 
and which Raleigh 
had in turn sold to 
the London mer- 
chants, but he made 
a new disposition of 
the land. He di- 
vided all of North 
America, from Can- 
ada on the north 
(owned by the French,^ to Florida on the south 
(owned by the Spanish), into two parts, and gave 

the northern half to the Plymouth Company and 

the southern half to the 

London Company. And 

to prevent any quarrel- 
ling between the two, 

the King forbade either 

to make any settlement 

within one hundred 

miles of the other. 

These companies con- 
sisted each of a number 

of Englishmen who had 

the means to send out 

parties better prepared 

in every way to over- 
come the difficulties 

which had been too 

much for those who had 

tried before. Mexico 

and South America were 

yielding a great deal of 

gold at this time to 



Spain, and these companies were formed in the 
hope of obtaining gold also from North America by 
means of the colonies they intended to plant here. 

Both companies despatched colonists about the 
same time ; the Plymouth Company to Maine and 
the London Company to Virginia. The former 
did not prosper and were soon forced to abandon 
their settlement near the mouth of the Kennebec 
River, but the latter were more fortunate. Intend- 
ing to land where Raleigh's men had landed, on 
Roanoke Island, they were driven out of their 
course by a storm into Chesapeake Bay, where they 
discovered a river, which they ascended for fifty 
miles, and there, in May, 1607, they made a settle- 
ment, which theyloyally called Jamestown, in honor 
of their King, whose name they also gave to the 
James River. This was the beginning of the State 
of Virginia and of the United States of America. 

At the start they had a hard struggle to live. 
The settlers were not of the stuff that colonists 
should be made of. There were no farmers, car- 
penters, or other mechanics among them ; but they 
were mostly bankrupt gentlemen, who had come to 
America, as had so many others before them, in 
search of gold with which to repair their ruined fort- 
unes. They neither knew how to labor with their 




THE BUILDING OF JAMESTOWN. 



12 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



hands nor were willing to do so had they known 
how, and were utterly unfitted for the rough work 
which always has to be done in a new country. 

But they had other troubles in addition to those 
caused by their own ignorance and incapacity. 



#fe^ 




QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Thej{ had arrived too late in the season to plant 
crops jfpr that year and had used up most of their 
food on the voyage, so that hunger soon stared 
them in the lace. Many of them became sick, and 
all suffered greatly from the cold during their first 



winter, as the miserable huts they built could not 
give them sufficient shelter. Disappointed at not 
finding gold, and disheartened by the many priva- 
tions they had to endure, they would quiCKly have 
deserted their newly-made home and returned to 
England, had it not been for one man. 
Captain John Smith, who kept up their 
courage, obtained food for them from 
the Indians, induced them to work, 
showed them how to build log-houses, 
settled their quarrels, and in general 
managed their affairs for them until 
they picked up heart by the arrival of 
further supplies of men and provisions 
from England. 

John Smith is one of the most strik- 
ing men in early American history. 
He had led a roving life and met with 
a great many strange adventures, if we 
are to believe the stories he tells of 
himself. He explored the country 
about Jamestown, and usually was on 
good terms with the Indians, though 
once he narrowly escaped losing his 
life at their hands. Powhatan, a chief 
not friendly to the whites, captured 
him and condemned him to death, and 
the sentence was about to be carried 
out when Powhatan's young daughter, 
Pocahontas, threw herself in front of 
Smith and begged his life from her 
father. She afterwards married a white 
man named Rolfe, and went to Eng- 
land, where she died. 

In time the affairs of the little set- 
tlement began to brighten. A more 
industrious class of emigrants joined it, 
and, giving up the useless search for 
gold, the colonists turned their atten- 
tion to raising tobacco, which they 
sent to England in exchange for cloth- 
ing and whatever else was needed. 
Tobacco soon became the principal 
product of the colony and was used as 
money in buying and selling, and we 
read that when, later on, a number of 
young women were sent over for the 
planters to marry, their husbands paid 
a hundred pounds of tobacco apiece 
for them, some indeed as much as a hundred and 
fifty pounds. 

By the end of the first ten years, the colony had 
become strong enough to take care of itself, and 
soon after obtained from the King and the Com- 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



13 



pany the right to make its own laws. Accordingly, 
in 1619, the first legislature, or House of Burgesses 
as it was called, ever elected in America met at 
Jamestown. It is a curious fact that in the very 
year the colonists began to govern themselves they 
began to enslave others; for it was in 1619 that the 
first negroes were brought to Virginia by 
a Dutch trading vessel and sold there as 
slaves. 

The London Company retained control 
of Virginia until 1624, when the King took 
away its charter, and she became what was 
known as a royal colony, or colony whose 
governor was appointed by the crown. He 
did not, however, alter the constitution 
previously given her, and generally the col- 
onists were allowed to manage their own 
affairs. They sided with the Stuarts dur- 
ing the Civil War in England, and when 
Charles II. regained his throne Virginia 
proudly called herself his " ancient do- 
minion," and this gave her the name of 
"The Old Dominion," which she still 
bears. But Charles showed no more grati- 
tude to the Virginians for their loyalty 
to him and to his father than he showed 
to English cavaliers. He gave his assent 
to the oppres- 
sive navigation 
laws, which for- 
bade the colon- 
ists from trading 
with any onebut 
the English or 
from using any>' 
but English ves- 
sels to trade in, 
and twice he 
made a present 
of the colony to* 
court favorites 
— though each 
time he after- 
wards recalled 
the gift. 

Virginia grew 
very rapidly, 

after her early troubles were over, through emi- 
gration from England, and was the most popu- 
;lous as well as the oldest of the colonies. The 
fertility of the soil, which enabled her to raise 
large crops of tobacco at but little expense, made 
her the richest and most prosperous colony as 
well. Her territory was then far larger that it 



is now. In fact, at first it included pretty much 
all of our present Southern States as far south as 
South Carolina, and extended westward indefi- 
nitely. New colonies and (after the Revolution) 
new States were carved out of it, and so its area 
was gradually reduced to its present size. 





POCAHONTAS. 



CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 

There were but few cities or towns,ythe people 
living chiefly on large plantations some distance 
apart. This caused the population to be so scat- 
tered that schools were not as common as in the 
New England colonies, and less attention was paid 
to education. The wealthy planters sent their sons 
to England to be educated and had their daughters 
taught in their homes. But the children of the 
less wealthy for the most part remained unschooled. 
Eighty-five years passed after the settlement at 
Jamestown before the first college was founded — 
that of William and Mary, established at Williams- 
burgh in 1692 — though Massachusetts had had one 
then for more than fifty years. 



u 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Most of the settlers in Virginia were members of 
the Church of England, and that was therefore 
made the religion of the colony. Though laws 
were passed excluding those who held a different 
belief, there was no active religious persecution, 
and in that respect Virginia appears in a more fa- 
vorable light than many of the other colonies, which 
not only excluded those whose faith did not agree 
with the prevailing one of the community, but 
which imprisoned and punished them if found with- 
in the colonial territory. 

The relations of the Virginians with the Indians 
were most of the time pleasant and friendly, but 
there were occasional difficulties. The first oc- 
curred in 1622, and was caused by Indian jealousy 
at the growing size and number of the plantations, 
which were slowly driving the Indians back from 




CAPTAIN SMITH TAKEN PRISONER BY THE INUIANS. 
{From Smith's Virginia.) 

the settlements. Three hundred and fifty whites 

lost their lives in this war, which was not ended 

•until after a long and bloody contest. A second 

out:break followed twenty j'ears later, during which 

five hwjndred settlers were killed, but in which the 



Indians were so thoroughly beaten that they did 
not rise against the whites again. But the Marj'- 
land Indians sometimes made raids over the borders 
of Virginia, and this led in 1676 to trouble among 
the colonists themselves. Sir William Berkeley 



fMW'mj;^^^^ 




POCAHONTAS SAVING CAPTAIN SMITH'S LIFE. 

was at the time Governor of Virginia, and was a 
very unpopular one. He refused either to put 
down the Indians himself or to supply the settlers 
with arms to do so for themselves. A young 
planter, named Bacon, thereupon raised a body of 
troops, overcame the Indians, and then marched 
against the governor and drove him out of James- 
town, which during the struggle was burnt and has 
never been rebuilt. The sudden death of Bacon 
ended the rebellion, but Berkeley in revenge hung 
twenty-two of Bacon's followers, a measure so cruel 
that it caused good-natured King Charles to say, 
" The old fool has hanged more men in that naked 
country than I did in all England for the murder 
of my father." 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



IS 



2. New York. 

One of his own courtiers remarked of James I., 
that "he never said a foolish thing and never did a 
wise one," and certainly his forbidding the London 
and Plymouth Companies from making any settle- 
ment within one hundred miles of the other showed 
as little wisdom as any act of his reign. For instead 
of preventing quarrels between colonies, as he in- 
tended, it caused quarrels. And it caused them 
in this way. By placing the English settlements so 
far apart, ample room was left for some other nation 
to slip in and plant colonies between them, and 
colonies of different nations near together are much 
more apt to quarrel than when both speak the same 
language and come from the same country. 

And that was exactly what did happen. The 
Dutch seized this unoccupied land, settled it, and 
soon began to quarrel with the English and other 
colonists who established themselves in the neigh- 
borhood not long after the Dutch. 

In 1609 an association of merchants in Holland, 
engaged in trade with the Indies, sent Hendrik Hud- 




HENDRIK HUDSON. 

son to discover if there was not some passage 
through America which would shorten the distance 
to India — the great desire of all European traders 
at that time, and indeed at the present time. While 
trying to find such a passage he entered the Hudson 
River (named after him), and sailed up it to what 
is now the City of Hudson, which was as far as his 
little vessel, the "Half-Moon," could go; though 



one of his boats ascended it still further, to the site 
of the present City of Albany. When he found that 
he could not reach India by that route he returned 
to Holland. 

The " Half-Moon " was the first European ship to 
visit the waters of the great river, and, in virtue of 
that fact, Holland claimed all the territory lying on 




JAMES I. 

both sides of it, and gave the name of the New 
Netherlands to the whole region. Hudson report- 
ed the natives as friendly and willing to trade with 
the whites, and Dutch merchants at once sent out 
vessels to open a traffic with the Indians. Trading- 
posts were soon established at various points on the 
river to help this traffic, which was a very profitable 
one to the Hollanders. An accident to one of the 
vessels detained its crew on Manhattan Island in 
1614, and this was the beginning of the settlement 
of the city, which the Dutch called New Amsterdam, 
but which is now known to all the world as New 
York. Ten years later the entire island was bought 
from the Indians for the sum of twenty-four pounds 
sterling, or one hundred and twenty dollars in our 
money. 



i6 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



New Amsterdam and the New Netherlands at 
first grew slowly, only poorer emigrants coming over 
from Holland. But after a little this changed. 
The Dutch West India Company secured control of 
all of the New Netherlands from the government of 
Holland, and it induced a wealthier class to come and 
settle along the Hudson by granting to each a tract 
of land, sixteen miles along the banks of any stream 
and extending back from the stream as far as each 
colonist chose. They could not take land already 
occupied, and they were obliged to pay the Indians 
for what they took, as the Dutch wisely wished to 
preserve the friendship of the Indians. These pro- 
prietors were called " Patroons," and their tracts 



after Hudson's voyage. To mark these claims as 
well as to aid the fur-traders, forts were built, one at 
Hartford and one near Camden. The English dis- 
puted the claim to Connecticut (the settlement of 
which they had by this time begun) as indeed they 
had previously done the claim to the New Nether- 
lands, and there was almost constant trouble be- 
tween the two colonies, which was not ended until 
the present boundary line was agreed upon in 1650. 
On the southern side of the New Netherlands, diffi- 
culties also arose with some Swedes who had settled 
near Wilmington, Delaware, and which resulted in 
their complete conquest (1655) by the Dutch under 
Peter Stuyvesant, the last and the best of the four 



V, 




THE " HALF MOON AT THE MOUTH OF THE HUDSON. 



" Manors." Each had the right to found a colony 
of fifty persons and had absolute power over his own 
manor, without regard to the colonial government. 
To aid them in tilling their land, the Company 
agreed to supply them with negro slaves from 
Africa. 

For the protection of those engaged in trading 
with the Indians, several forts were erected, one of 
which (Fort Orange) was the origin of the capital 
city of the State, Albany. The Dutch claim in- 
cluded not only the present limits of New York, but 
also territory north and south of it, extending from 
Cape Cod to Cape Henlopen. This claim had for 
its basis explorations made by Dutch seamen soon 



governors (or directors) who ruled over the New 
Netherlands until it passed into the possession of 
the English. By their just and wise treatment of 
the natives, the Dutch for the most part escaped the 
Indian wars, which were such a scourge to many of 
the other colonies. Only one serious disturbance 
occurred (1643). and that was brought on by the 
cruelty of the Dutch governor. Sir William Kieft, 
who in consequence was recalled by the West India 
Company, and was succeeded by Stuyvesant, whO' 
quickly made peace with the Indians. 

As the colony grew in numbers and in wealth, 
many English joined the Dutch in New Amsterdam 
to share in the rich trade which had been established 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



17 



between the Indians on the one side and Europe 
on the other. This trade was largely in furs, though 
they also exported other articles, as tobacco and 
tar. Furs were sometimes used as money, much in 
the same way that tobacco was used in Virginia, 
and we hear of a minister receiving one hundred 
and fifty beaver-skins for his year's salary. Besides 
the English, many other nations had representatives 
there, and it was said that one could hear eighteen 
different languages spoken in the streets of New 
Amsterdam while it was still a Dutch town. 

But next to the Dutch, the number of Englishmen 



much to the disgust of old Peter Stu)rvesant, who 
thought them great cowards for not preferring to 
fight. This was in 1664, when Charles II. was on 
the English throne. He made a present of the col- 
ony to his brother James, the Duke of York, and 
the names both of the New Netherlands and of 
New Amsterdam were changed, in honor of the 
royal owner, to New York. 

Holland made one attempt to regain her lost 
colony (1673) and for a brief time succeeded, but 
was forced the next year to give it back again to 
England. 




PETER STUYVESANT. 



was the largest in the place, and they in time became 
very much discontented with the Dutch government. 
It was too strict to please them. They wanted great- 
er freedom and a voice in the management of public 
affairs. Many of the Dutch citizens sympathized 
with them in this feeling, for they, too, felt that they 
had much less liberty than the people in the other 
colonies enjoyed. When, therefore, an English fleet 
appeared before New Amsterdam and demanded 
its surrender, all of the inhabitants, the Dutch as 
well as the English, insisted upon giving it up, 



Its new owner, the Duke of York, was more lib- 
eral than the West India Company had been. He 
allowed the colonists to make their own laws and 
granted them a charter. This he afterwards tried 
to recall when he became King, but he did not suc- 
ceed. The number of English settlers soon exceed- 
ed the Dutch, and Dutch customs gradually dis- 
appeared, though a few have remained to the pres- 
ent day ; for both Santa Claus and New Year's calls 
have come down to us from the Knickerbockers. 
Many years passed before the Dutch language en- 



i8 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



tirely ceased to be spoken, and schools could be 
found in New York for a long time where English 
■was taught like a foreign language, only as an 
accomplishment. 

The history of New York from its conquest to the 
Revolution, is chiefly the history of a succession of 
bad governors sent by the English kings to rule 
over the colony, and in this its experience was the 



J. Massachusetts. 

About the time that the little colony at James- 
town was making its start, a body of men had gone 
to Holland from England to escape the persecutions 
which religious differences had brought upon them 
in Great Britain. In Holland they found men who 
believed as they did, and with whom they could 




NEW AMSTERDAM IN 1659. 

A, the fort; B, the church; C, the windmill ; D, the flag which is hoisted when vessels arrive in port; E, the prison; 
F, the house of the general ; G, the place of execution ; H, the place of e.xpose, or pillory. 



same as that of many of the other colonies. Though 
some of these rulers were worse than others, none 
of them were go6d or fit to govern. The colony, 
■while large in territory, was small in population, 
with few settlements excepting those scattered 
along the Hudson River, and it remained among 
the less important colonies until after the indepen- 
dence of the country had been for some time se- 
cured. 

The introduction of slavery into Virginia was fol- 
lowed by its introduction into all of the colonies, 
though it was never as extensive in the North as in 
the South. In New York it was the cause of a most 
remarkable excitement in 1740, when there was a 
rumor that the negroes had made a plot to kill 
all the whites, and before the furore could sub- 
side thirty-two negroes had been put to death and 
6eventy-one banished. It is no longer believed, 
now, that such a plot had been formed, or that the 
slaves had in any way conspired against their mas- 
ters. 



therefore live in peace. But after spending twelve 
years in Holland, they became desirous of having a 
home of their own, where their children could grow 
up in English and not in Dutch ways, and which 
would also ser\'e as an asylum for others, who, like 
themselves, might wish to leave England for "con- 
science' sake." Sothey turned their eyes to the Nev/ 
World, hoping there they migbt find a country 
large enough for all, and where they could worship 
God in the only way that seemed to them right. 

Obtaining from the London Company permission 
to settle in " Southern Virginia," as the half of the 
country given that Company by King James was 
called, a part of their number returned from Hol- 
land to England, and being joined by others from 
London, set sail from Southampton in September, 
1620, in the " Mayflower." They had already received 
the name of Pilgrims when they first went to Hol- 
land, and now the name was applied to them more 
seriously than ever, when they started on that great- 
er and much more dangerous journey to America. 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



19 




TOMB OF THE MATE OF THE " MAYFLUWER. 



After a wear}' voyage of sixty-three days they 
reached Cape Cod, and though this was north of 
the limits of "Southern Virginia," they were so worn 
out by their confinement on the ship that they de- 
cided to make their settlement there, and accord- 
ingly on the 2ist of December, 1620, they landed at 
a spot which they named New Plymouth, and the 
colonization of New England was begun. 

One hundred and one sailed from Southampton 
on the " Mayflower." One hundred and two landed 
at New Plymouth ; for on the voyage a little girl had 
been born. Peregrine White, who received her name 
on account of the " peregrinations " (or wanderings) 
of her parents. Her fate was not as sad as was that 
of Virginia Dare, for fortunately the Plymouth Col- 
ony did not disappear like the one on Roanoke 
Island, but sur\'ived its many hardships, and forms 
to-day a part of the great State of Massachusetts. 




MONUMENT COMMEMORATING THE LANDING OB 
THE PILGRIMS AT PLYMOUTH. 

It was a dreary and bleak shore on which they 
landed that cold winter day; but they had stout 
hearts ready to face every trial for the sake of a 
home for themselves and for their children. Unlike 
the Virginia settlers, it was not gold or the desire 
for riches that had tempted them to cross the At- 
lantic, but a love of freedom and a religious im- 
pulse, and this gave them greater courage to endure 
the sufferings before them. Apart from the motive 
which brought them to America, they were better 



30 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



fitted in other ways for the task before them than 
were the earliest Virginians. They liad stronger bod- 
ies, they were more used to hard work and were less 
afraid of it, and they better understood in advance 
what colonization really meant. And so, though 
the climate was more severe and the soil less fertile 
at Plymouth than at Jamestown, there was more 
cheerfulness and less discontent in this northern 
colony than there had been in the southern one. 

Before leaving the " Mayflower," the Pilgrims 
chose from among their number John Carver as 
their governor and agreed upon a form of govern- 



the cold weather. Then they divided themselves 
into nineteen families, and gradually a house was 
built for each. The houses were not very large, and 
the beds had to be pretty close together, but the 
colonists were much more comfortable in them 
than they had been on shipboard, or when they 
were all crowded together in the building they first 
occupied. They were made of logs and mortar 
with thatched roofs, and the windows had oiled 
paper in place of glass. A shed was also put up to 
cover their goods, and a small hospital and a church 
were built. As it was winter, of course no crops 




PILGRIMS ON THEIR WaY TO CHURCH. 



ment which gave each one an equal voice in the 
management of the affairs of the colony. This was 
necessary because they had no charter from the 
King, and because their settlement was beyond the 
limits of the land granted to the London Company 
(which had sent them to this country), and therefore 
outside of its authority. They also organized a 
body of soldiers for protection against the Indians, 
should it be necessary, and appointed Miles Stan- 
dish its captain. 

The first thing done on landing was to erect a 
building large enough to give them all shelter in 



could be raised, so they supported themselves by 
hunting and fishing until the season came round 
when they could grow corn. Fortunately the Ind- 
ians in their neighborhood were friendly, and a 
treaty was made with Massasoit, their chief, which 
lasted over fifty years. Though that first winter 
was a hard one and half of their number (including 
Governor Carver) died before it was over, the Pil- 
grims did not lose heart, and not one of them re- 
turned in the " Mayflower " when she sailed back to 
England the following spring. All preferred to re- 
main and share the fate of the rest. 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



A few years after the landing of the Pilgrims, an- 
other body of Englishmen came over and estab- 
lished themselves (i 628) at a point on the coast north 
■of Plymouth, which they named Salem. Others 
followed them in the next year and settled at 
Charlestown, and soon after Boston, Roxbury and 
other places near by began their existence. These 
were all under one government and formed the 
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Its leading spirits were 
John Winthrop, John Endicott, Sir Henry Vane 
and John Cotton, who had obtained a charter from 
King James before they left England, and a grant 
of land from the Council of Plymouth (which had 
succeeded to the rights of the Plymouth Company), 
extending from three miles south of the Charles 
River to three miles north of the Merrimack River. 

Members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were 
known as Puritans, and, like the Pilgrims, had left 
England to escape religious persecution. They 
differed from the Pilgrims on some points of belief, 
but in the main were men of very much the same 
character^ — hardy, self-denying and austere. They 
had greater wealth and they came over in larger num- 
bers, but their sufferings and privations during 
their first years in America were nearly as severe as 
were those of the Plymouth settlers, notwithstand- , 
ing the greater comforts they had been able to pro- 
vide themselves with. The two colonies maintained 
a separate existence for many years after their 
foundation, but their history and interests were the 
same, though the Bay Colony received by far the 
greater number of recruits from England, and was 
always larger, stronger, and more prosperous than 
Plymouth Colony. In 1691 tlje two were united 
under the name of Massachusetts Colony ; so called 
from a tribe of Indians that lived close at hand — 
the word " Massachusetts" meaning " blue hills." 

Pilgrims and Puritans both fled to this country 
to obtain religious freedom, but it was freedom for 
themselves and not for others that they sought. 
We have seen in Virginia that the very year the 
colonists began to govern themselves they began to 
enslave others. So in Massachusetts, as soon as 
the colonists escaped being persecuted themselves, 
they began to persecute others. In 1635 a minister 
in Salem, named Roger Williams, was banished 
from the colony because his opinions on religious 
matters were not quite the same as those of the 
others ; and two years later a woman (Mrs. Hutchin- 
son) was also driven into the wilderness for holding 
meetings of her own sex, in which some new views 
of theology were advocated. Many others fared as 
badly and were forced to seek a home where best 
they could beyond the limits of Massachusetts. 



Fortunately one was soon ready for them in Rhode 
Island, founded by Roger Williams when he was 
expelled by the Puritans. 

The Quakers (or Friends) were treated still more 
harshly. Four of them were hanged and a number 
of others were thrown into prison for neglecting to 
obey the order to leave the colony and to keep 
away from it. Such extreme measures and the pa- 
tience and courage with which they were borne 
soon, however, produced a reaction in public opin- 
ion, which caused the persecution to cease and 
allowed the Quakers to remain undisturbed. 

The history of Massachusetts was stained with 
yet one more persecution before religious tolera- 
tion gained the day. At that time it was a com- 
mon belief all over the world that there were witches 




JOHN ENDICOTT. 

who had the power to harm man or animal, and 
who could assume whatever shape they chose. In 
1692 a craze broke out in Salem that there were 
witches there and, before people recovered their 
senses, twenty persons had been put to death who 
were innocent of any offence. 

But if there was less religious freedom in Massa- 
chusetts in its earlier days than there was at the 
same period in Virginia, there was a greater interest 
in education. In all of the New England settle- 
ments, as soon as the houses and churches were 
built, schools were started and, before the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Colony was ten years old. Harvard 
College was founded at what was then Newtown, 
but is now Cambridge. It received its name from 
John Harvard, who gave to it his library of books and 



22 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




WITCHCRAFT AT SALEM VILLAGE, 



about four thousand 
dollars in money. 
Harvard University 
(as it is now named) 
is thus not only the 
largest and richest 
college in America 
but is also the oldest. 
Both in Plymouth 
Colony and in Mas- 
sachusetts Bay Col- 
ony the governors 
were elected by the 
people (church- 
members only voting 
in the latter) until 
James II. ascended 
the English throne. ti 
He took away this 
right and declared 
that all charters pre- 
viously granted to 
the colonies were for- 
feited. Sir Edmund 
Andres was appoint- 
ed by him governor 
of the whole of New 



England , and for 
three years Massa- 
chusetts suffered un- 
der his tyranny 
(1686-1689), until the 
English Revolution 
gave the colonists an 
opportunity to rid 
themselves of An- 
dres by sending him 
back to Great Brit- 
ain. When the two 
colonies of Plymouth 
and Massachusetts 
Bay were united by 
William and Mary in 
1 69 1, a new charter 
was granted in place 
of the one recalled 
by James. This did 
not restore to the 
people the privilege 
of choosing their 
own governor; that 
was reserved for the 
sovereign. But it d id 
give religious free- 




HARVARD COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



n 



dom to all excepting Roman Catholics, and it ex- 
tended the limits of the colony so as to include 
Maine and Nova Scotia. The former remained part 
of Massachusetts from this time until its admission 
as a separate State into the Union, in 1820. The 
latter was lost during the Revblutionary War. 

4. Connecticut. 

Connecticut, like Massachusetts, had at first two 
separate colonies within its borders, the govern- 
ment of each being entirely distinct from the other. 
There was indeed also 
a third settlement, but 
as that was small and 
was soon united with 
one of the others, it 
scarcely need be 
spoken of as an inde- 
pendent colony. 

The first of the three 
was settled by colo- 
nists from Massachu- 
setts who, in 1635 and 
1636, forced their way 
through the wilderness 
and established them- 
selves at Windsor, 
Hartford and Wethers- 
field, taking the name 
of the Colony of Con- 
necticut, which in the 
Indian tongue means 
" long river." Trouble 
soon arose between 
them and the- Dutch 
in the New Nether- 
lands, who had previ- 
ously (1633) built a fort 
just below Hartford, 
and who claimed a 
right to all of the land 
as far as Cape Cod, 

through explorations made by their trading vessels 
about the time New Amsterdam was founded. 
Though it caused ill-feeling ^nd was a serious an- 
noyance to each side, this trouble fortunately did 
not lead to any actual war, and it was finally settled 
(1650) by a treaty which placed the boundaries very 
much as they exist between the two States to-day. 

These Connecticut colonists from Massachusetts 
who were so emphatic in their denial of the Dutch 
claim to the land they had taken possession of, 
had really no right to it themselves, as they had ob- 




tained no grant from the Council of 'Plymouth. In 
fact the Council of Plymouth no longer owned it, 
as it had previously disposed of it to the Earl of 
Warwick, who in turn had transferred it to Lords 
Say and Brook. The latter, however, made little 
use of it, only one small settlement being started 
by them, which, from their two names, was called 
Saybrook. It was at the mouth of the Connecticut 
River, and at first was only a fort, built to prevent 
the Dutch from gaining control of the river. It 
was the least important of the three independent 
settlements already referred to, and afterwards 

(1644) became part of 
the Colony of Connect- 
icut. 

Saybrook, Windsor 
and Hartford were 
founded about the 
same time, and New 
Haven was not long in 
following, but, unlike 
the others, it was set- 
tled (1638) by colonists 
who came to it directly 
from England and not 
from Massachusetts. 
They bought their land 
from the Indians and 
adopted the Bible as 
the only law of the col- 
ony, limiting the rights 
to vote for governor 
and other officers, as 
Massachusetts Bay had 
done, to church mem- 
bers (Puritans). This 
was in contrast to the 
Colony of Connecticut, 
which gave the privi- 
lege of voting to all 
residents of good char- 
acter. As a conse- 
quence of this greater 
liberality, the latter colony grew more rapidly than 
New Haven, as new settlers who were not Puritans 
preferred to be under a government in which they 
had a voice in the management of affairs. 

Neither colony obtained a charter until after the 
Restoration in England, when Gov. Winthrop, of the 
Colony of Connecticut, obtained one from Charles 
II. (1662), covering the territory of both and provid- 
ing for their union. New Haven was not very will- 
ing to give up her independence, but finally con- 
sented, and in 1665 the two colonies became one 



24 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



under the name of Connecticut. The charter was a 
liberal one, allowing the people to make their own 
laws as well as to choose their own governor and to 
elect their own assembly, and it was so well liked by 
the people that they kept it in force for more than 
forty years after the Declaration of I ndependence was 
adopted. James II. attempted to revoke it, as he 
revoked those of Massachusetts and the other colo- 
nies when he tried to unite all New England into one 
province with Sir Edmund Andros as its governor. 
Androswentto Hartford in 1687 and demanded that 



tree became known as the Charter Oak, and was 
justly the pride of Hartford, until it was blown down 
by a storm in 1856. 

When the two colonies were united, New Haven 
(city) and Hartford were both made capitals of Con- 
necticut, the governor living part of the time in 
one place and part of the time in the other, and 
this was continued after the Colony became a State ; 
but since 1873 Hartford has been the only capital. 

In 1701 Yale College was founded by the Assem- 
bly of Connecticut, at Saybrook, as a school for 




IHE (.APirOL, HAKlllJRO. 



the charter be given up to him. The people ob- 
jected. He insisted ; a discussion followed, during 
which the lights (it was in the evening) were sudden- 
ly put out and in the confusion and darkness the 
charter mysteriously disappeared and could not be 
found when the lights were restored, so that Andros 
was compelled to go back without it. When James 
left the throne and the colonists felt safe once more 
under William and Mary the charter was brought 
from its hiding-place, a hollow oak tree, near at hand, 
•where it had lain concealed for two years. This 



training young men to the ministry, and a few 
years later (171 7) it was removed to New Haven, 
when it took its present name from Elihu Yale, the 
governor of the colony and a warm friend of the 
college. Yale was thus the third of the higher in- 
stitutions of learning to be established in the 
country, and is next to the oldest of those still in 
existence, its only senior being Harvard. Next in 
age came the College of New Jersey (1746), the 
University of Pennsylvania (1749), and Columbia, 
formerly King's College (New York City, 1754). 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



5. Rhode Island. 

It was in the depth of winter when Roger Will- 
jams, banished from his church in Salem, left the 
Colony of Massachusetts to find a home where there 
should be perfect religious freedom for all, whatever 
their belief might be. Ignorant of the way and with- 
out a guide, he wandered in the pathless woods for 
fourteen weeks before he found a shelter or a ref- 
uge, and when he did find it, it was among a tribe 
of Indians called the Narragansetts. They were very 
kind to him and gave him a tract of land, which, 
in remembrance of " God's merciful providence to 
him in his distress," he named Providence (1636). 
Others joined him there, and in the following year a 
settlement was also made on the Island of Rhodes, 
which was bought from the Indians for the purpose, 
and the name of which was afterwards changed to 
Rhode Island (or " red island," from the Dutch). 
Though these two colonies were entirely separate 
from each other, each having its own government, 
they served alike as a home for all who had been 
persecuted elsewhere, and it was said that any one 
■who had lost his religion would find it in Rhode 
Island. 

In 1644 a charter was obtained from the English 
Parliament uniting the two colonies under the 
name of " Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions," which is still their legal name to-day. New- 
port (at the southern end of the Island of Rhodes) 
and Providence were both made capitals of the 
colony and are now of the State. On the accession 
of Charles II. a new charter was granted, confirming 
the colonists in all their liberties and giving them 




a.'yri^ 




PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. 



ample powers of self-government. This charte\ 
was suspended while Andros was governor of New 
England (i 686-1 689), but afterwards resumed its 
force and continued to be the basis of law until 
1842. 

There is little of interest or importance in the 
early history of Rhode Island. The Indians gave 
her scarcely any trouble, and her principal difficul- 
ties were with Massachusetts, who, on account of 
her religious toleration, tried 
to prevent all trading and 
other communications be- 
tween the two colonies. 
When Roger Williams went 
to England to obtain a char- 
ter Massachusetts would not 
allow him to sail from Boston, 
so that he was obliged to 
start from New Amsterdam. 
She also had disputes about 
her boundaries with both 
Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut, who between them 
claimed pretty much all her 
territory, excepting the isl- 
ands" in Narragansett Ba)% 
but she was firm and insisted 
upon her rights, and the mat- 
ter was as last settled in 1 741, 



26 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



giving her the land she claimed and which she now 
occupies. 

None of the other colonies had laws as gentle or 
liberal as Rhode Island or granted as much freedom 
to their inhabitants. Indeed they were so afraid of 
tyranny that when Williams refused to be their gov- 
ernor, they went without one for forty years to 
avoid the danger of choosing one who might prove 
a tyrant. 



it grew very slowly and from its exposed position 
suffered a great deal from Indian attacks, its inhab- 
itants seemed to thrive, and at the outbreak of the 
Revolution it was a strong and resolute colony. 
During much of its early history the settlers were 
engaged in disputes with Mason's heirs, who, though 
they had a legal right to the land, found it impos- 1 
sible to gain possession of it and were at length com- 
pelled to give up their attempts to drive the settlers 




WILLIAMS' PRAYER-MEETING HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



6. New Hampshire. 

Religion had nothing to do with the settlement 
of New Hampshire, as it had with the other New 
England colonics. Fishing was the attraction which 
led to the starting in 1623 of little villages at Dover 
and Portsmouth, which for fifty or sixty years re- 
mained very small, being scarcely anjthing more 
than mere fishing stations. It received its name 
from the English county (Hampshire) in which lived 
John Mason, to whom the Council of Plymouth had 
granted the land in 1622. 

Its history is closely connected with that of Massa- 
chusetts, to which it was three times formally united 
and from which it was as many times separated. 
It was also once made part of New York. Though 



ofi' and were forced to allow them to remain on it m 
peace. 

7. Maryland. 

As Massachusetts was settled by persecuted Pil- 
grims and Puritans, so Marj-land was settled by 
persecuted Roman Catholics, whose sufferings for 
their religion in England were even greater than 
those of the Pilgrims and Puritans. 

At first they attempted to found a colony in New- 
foundland, but climate and soil were both against 
them and the attempt had to be abandoned. Next 
they planned to join the settlement in Virginia, 
but the sentiment there was too strongly opposed 
to Roman Catholics to permit of it. So a tract of 
land north of the Potomac was obtained for them 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



2^ 



from Charles I. and in honor of his wife (Henrietta 
Maria) was named Maryland. 

This land was actually given to Lord Baltimore 
(Sir George Calvert), a prominent Catholic and 
formerly a member of the London Company. He 
had greatly interested himself in finding a home 
for his fellow-Catholics in America, had started the 
Newfoundland colony and had endeavored to ob- 
tain their admittance to Virginia. Before the patent 
(or title-deed) was signed by the King, Calvert died, 
and the name of his son, Cecil Calvert, who by his 
father's death had become Lord Baltimore, was 
thereupon inserted in the deed in place of his 
father's. This patent gave Maryland to Lord Balti- 
more and to his descendents forever, and they did 
remain its proprietors until the Revolution. 

The first settlement in Maryland was made near 
the mouth of the Potomac in 1634, and was called 
St. Mary's. Annapolis, now the capital of the State 
and the place where the United States Naval Acad- 
emy is situated, was founded in 1683, and Baltimore 
in 1 729. Virginia was very jealous of the new colony 
and made her all the trouble she could. The tract 
given Calvert had been part of her own territory 
and had been taken away by Charles without her 
consent or knowledge just as she was about coloniz- 
ing it. But though her opposition created diflficul- 
ties and even caused some bloodshed, Lord Balti- 
more retained his rights and the colony prospered. 

Though founded for and by Roman Catholics, 
Maryland gladly welcomed all Christians by what- 
ever name they called themselves to her settle- 
ments. In this respect she was more liberal than 
any of the other early colonies, excepting only 
Rhode Island, who did not limit her welcome to 
Christians, but who received Jew and sceptic as 
freely as Baptist or Churchman. Marj-land was 
equally liberal in political matters, giving every 
settler an equal vote in making laws for the colony. 

This liberality the Catholics afterwards had reason 
to regret, for it caused so many Protestants who 
had been persecuted elsewhere to take refuge in 
Maryland that in time they outnumbered the Catho- 
lics and then ungratefully deprived the latter of the 
right to vote in the very colony founded especially 
for them. 

Maryland had no trouble with the Indians, and, 
excepting the early difficulties with Virginia, lived 
at peace with all the world. When Pennsylvania 
was colonized a difference of opinion arose between 
her and Maryland regarding the boundary line 
between the two colonies, which was not settled till 
the year in which the French and Indian war was 
ended (1763). The division line then agreed upon 



was called, from the names of the two sur\'eyors 
who ran it, " Mason and Dixon's line," and served 




HENRIETTA. 

not only to separate Pennsylvania and Maryland 
but for a hundred years marked in popular speech 
the boundary between the free and the slave States. 

8. Neiv Jersey. 

New Jersey had been part of the New Nether- 
lands, and, on the surrender of the latter to the 
English in 1664, passed with the other possessions 
of the Dutch into the ownership of the Duke of 
York, who sold it the same year to Lord Berkeley 
and Sir George Carteret. The latter gave it its 
name from the Island of Jersey, in the English 
Channel, of which he had once been governor. 

Though the Swedes and Dutch had begun some 
small settlements there soon after New Amsterdam 
was founded, they were of little account, and the 
real colonization of New Jersey may be said to 
have started with Elizabeth, settled in 1664 by 
Puritans from Long Island. Connecticut emigrants 
settled Newark in 1666, and the Quakers Burling- 
ton in 1677. In 1676 Berkeley and Carteret divided 
the tract between them, East Jersey falling to the 
latter and West Jersey to the former. Gradually 



28 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the Quakers bought up most of the land, and with 
some Scottish Presbyterians became the principal 
settlers. There was perfect liberty of conscience 
throughout the colony, which in this respect resem- 
bled Rhode Island and Maryland. It passed out 
of the possession of the proprietors in 1702 and 
became a royal colony. For a time it was made 
part of New York, though with a separate assembly, 
but in 1738 it became an independent colony and 
remained one until the Revolution made it a State. 
Though the people in New Jersey at no time in 
its colonial history were allowed to choose their 
own governors, they were permitted to make their 
own laws and they received from Berkeley and 
Carteret many privileges which really amounted to 
a charter, though they were not one in name. Un- 
der royal governors the colony did not fare so well, 
still it prospered, and the liberal laws attracted 
many settlers from New York and other colonies 
•who added to its wealth. The large manufactories 
for which New Jersey is now famed were at that 
time unknown, and most of the community then 
were farmers. 

In 1746 the College of New Jersey 'was founded 
at Elizabeth, but was removed in 1757 to Princeton. 
It was the fourth American college to be established, 
following Yale and preceding the University of 
Pennsylvania. 

g. Pennsylvania. 

Like so many of the other colonies, Pennsylvania 
was founded as a refuge for those who had been 





PENN'S arrival in AMERICA. 



persecuted for their religion in England, only this 
time it was neither Pilgrims nor Puritans, Baptists 
nor Roman Catholics who sought a home in the 
New World, but Quakers or members of the Society 
of Friends. 

Their leader was William Penn. He was one of 
the most eminent Quakers in England, and was the 
son of a distinguished admiral in the British Navy, 
who had loaned a large sum of money to Charles II. 
to aid him in regaining his father's throne. Penn 
proposed to the King that in payment of this debt 
he should be given some land in America. This 
Charles was very willing to do, and in 1681 granted 
him the tract which now forms the State of Penn- 
sylvania, a Latin word meaning " Penn's Woods." 

Penn came over with a large body of settlers in 
1682, and his first act was to buy the land needed 
for his colony from the Indians and to make a 
friendly treaty with them, which he took care 
should not afterwards be broken by the whites. 
His treatment of them was so just and so kind that 
the Indians always were on the best of terms with 
the Quakers, and would trust any one wearing their 
dress. The year after his arrival (1683) Penn laid 
out Philadelphia (" the city of brotherly love "), 
which soon became the largest city in this country 
and remained the largest until New York gained 
the lead in 1820. 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



29 



In addition to the land obtained from King 
Charles, Penn bought (1682) from the Duke of York 
what is now the State of Delaware and which had 
been, like New Jersey, part of the New Netherlands. 
Settlements had already been made there and in 
some parts of Pennsylvania proper by the Swedes 
and Dutch as early as 1635, and by some English 
a little later. Penn did not disturb these settlers 
in their possessions ; he even paid them for land 
occupied by them, which he desired as a site for 
Philadelphia. 

Though the colony was intended as an asylum 
for Quakers, others were received into it as freely 



the attempts of the latter to again become King of 
England. But it was soon restored to him and 
remained in the posession of his family for nearly 
a hundred years, until in 1779 their rights were 
bought by the State for six hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars. 

10. Delaware. 

Delaware was first settled by the Swedes near 
the present city of Wilmington in 1638, and the 
name of New Sweden was given by them to the 
surrounding country, which they bought from the 
Indians. The Dutch considered it a part of the 




PENN S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. 



as were the Friends, and no one ' believing in 
Almighty God " was excluded or questioned further 
as to his faith. The governor was appointed by 
Penn, but the people elected the law-makers and 
chose most of their other officers. So excellent 
was the form of government adopted at the start, 
that scarcely any change was made m it until the 
colony became an independent State at the out- 
break of the Revolution m 1776. 

In 1692 Pennsylvania was for a short time taken 
away from Penn by William and Mary, because he 
was suspected of sympathizing with James II. in 



New Netherlands, and in 1655 compelled the Swedes 
to submit to their authority. When King Charles 
seized all the Dutch possessions in 1664 and gave 
them to his brother, the Duke of York, the latter 
soon sold (16S2) Delaware to William Penn. From 
that time until the Revolution it formed part of 
Pennsylvania, though after 1703 it had a separate 
assembly, but not a separate governor. During its 
colonial history, it was known as " the Territories " 
or " the three lower counties on the Delaware," so 
called from the river on which they were situated and 
which took its name from Lord Delaware. When 



3° 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the colonies separated from Great Britain in 1776 
it organized a government independent of Penn- 
sylvania and so became one of the thirteen original 
States. 

Under the rule of Penn and of his descendants it 
shared the mild, liberal government of the people 
of Pennsylvania. The occupation (farming) of the 
inhabitants of the two colonies was the same, and 
their history was uneventful but prosperous. 



planted in 1664 by emigrants from Virginia on the 
Chowan River and named Albemarle, and the fol- 
lowing year another settlement was established near 
Wilmington and called the Clarendon County col- 
ony. Both of these names were those of prominent 
proprietors of the grant. 

The form of government adopted for Carolina 
was a peculiar one and unlike that of any of" the 
other colonies. It was drawn up for the proprietors 




PENN S HOUSE. 



//. North Carolina. 

A hundred years passed after the failure of the 
French to settle at Port Royal before another at- 
tempt was make to colonize that part of our country. 
Then the English tried and succeeded. 

In 1663 the territory now included in both Caro- 
linas, Georgia and the northern half of Florida was 
given by the English sovereign to eight proprietors 
who retained the name of Carolina previously given 
it by the French as it honored their present King, 
Charles 1 1., as much as it had the forrner French one, 
Charles IX. (The Latin word for Charles is " Caro- 
lus;" hence, "Carolina.") 

Under these eight joint-owners a colony was 



by the celebrated English philosopher, John Locke, 
and created a nobility of various degrees of rank 
(called barons, landgraves and caziques), who were 
to possess all the authority, leaving the people with- 
out any share in the government. This the settlers 
naturally did not like, so that the scheme, after a 
trial of twenty years, had to be abandoned. 

Besides the colonies in Albemarle and Clarendon 
counties, other settlements were made, chiefly in 
the southern part of the grant. For a considerable 
time these were all under one government, but the 
distance between the northern and southern settle- 
ments was so great that it was finally thought best 
to separate them into two counties of the same 
provmce— North and South Carolina. Though 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 



31 



these had different governors, they were still both 
under control of the same proprietors and were 
properly regarded as one colony until 1729, when a 
ijnal separation was made and they became inde- 
pendent of each other. They then became royal 
colonies, the proprietors giving back the territory to 
(the King on account of their inability to collect 
itheir rents from the settlers. 

In none of the colonies was the population so 




scattered as in North 
Carolina, and few of 
them were so poor. 
But though it grew 
^slowly it grew surely and soon became firmly estab- 
'lished, and the people showed great independence 
:and liberality. No religious persecution was allowed, 
:and the attempt to adopt the Church of England as 
:a state (or colonial) church was defeated in North 
• Carolina while it succeeded in South Carolina. The 
•governors sent from England to rule over North 
'Carolina were among the worst that any of the colo- 
mies were afflicted 'with, and its colonial history con- 
;sists almost entlirely of a series of conflicts on the 
part of the people to defend their rights against the 
ttyranny,.(a'f 4'he King's representatives. 



V 



12. South Carolina. 



The 'first settlement in what is now South Caro- 
llina wasimade in 4670 on the Ashley River and be- 
came affteiwandj "known as Old Charleston. Ten 



years later the settlement was removed to where 
the Cooper River unites with the Ashley and the 
foundations laid of the present city of Charleston. 
The colonists who in 1665 had settled in Clarendon 
County (North Carolina), but who had not prospered 
there, removed in a body to this new settlement, 
which also received a number of Huguenots (French 
Protestants), as well as some Dutch from New York 
who were discontented with the changes which 
followed its transfer to the 
W^^ English. Other settle- 

W~ ments sprang up in South 

Carolina in addition to 
'-J the one about Charleston, 
but that for a long time 
was the only town of any 
importance in the colony. 
Farming and hunting 
and the extraction of tar 
and turpentine from trees 
were the principal occupa- 
tions of the North Caro- 
linians. In South Caro- 
lina the production of rice 
was at first the great in- 
dustry of its people, and 
like furs in New York and 
tobacco in Maryland and 
Virginia, rice in South 
Carolina was used in place 
of money. Later on, the 
cultivation of indigo was 
introduced and became even more important than 
rice. The raising and export to England of these 
two articles made South Carolina one of the richest 
of the thirteen colonies. Cotton, which afterwards 
became " king " throughout the South, was raised 
very little before the Revolutionary War, as there 
was no machinery then for cleaning it or separating 
the seeds from the fibre. 

Until Georgia was settled South Carolina was 
exposed on her southern side to attacks from the 
Spaniards in Florida, and between 1702 and 1706 
there was warfare between the settlements of the 
two different nations, during which St. Augustine 
was captured, but it did not remain long in the 
English hands, the Spaniards soon retaking it. 
South Carolina also had trouble with Indian allies 
of Florida, but with the aid of Virginia and Mary- 
land she defeated them and finally broke their power 
so that they left her in peace. 

Though the people of South Carolina in 1706 
made the Church of England the religion of the 
colony, there was no persecution of those of a differ-* 



THE DELAWARE RIVER. 



32 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



ent belief. There was the same opposition in South 
Carolina on the part of the settlers to the payment 
of rents to the proprietors that there was in North 
Carolina, and it was this which caused the two Caro- 
linas to be given back by their joint-owners to the 
King in 1729, and to their becoming from that time 
until 1776 separate royal colonies. 

I J. Geoi'g ia. 

Georgia, the last of the thirteen colonies to be 
settled, had been part of the tract given to the 
proprietors of Carolina, and which they gave back 
to the English crown in 1729. No attempt to col- 
onize it was made during the ownership of the 
proprietors, nor did South Carolina, after she be- 
came a separate royal colony, look upon it as a 
very valuable part of her territory. She was there- 
fore quite willing to part with it when George II. 
in 1732 granted this land to James Oglethorpe and 
others as a home for poor people. 

Oglethorpe was an officer in the English army who 
had become very much interested in the miserable 
state of the English poor, and who had devoted his 
life to doing whatever was in his power to raise 
their condition. Among his plans was founding a 
colony for them in America, where he thought they 
might succeed better than they had done in Eng- 
land. So he obtained a grant of this land from the 
King, and secured from Parliament a sum of money 
with which to start the enterprise. 

The new colony was named Georgia in honor of 



King George, and the first settlement in it was made 
at Savannah in 1733 under the personal direction 
of Oglethorpe himself. Like the earliest Virginia 
settlers, the Savannah colonists were poor material 
for pioneers, comprising chiefly London tradesmen, 
who had failed in the effort to make a living in the 
Old World, and who were in every way unsuitad to 
the task before them in the New World. A better 
class afterwards joined them, who somewhat im- 
proved and strengthened the colony, but it grew 
very slowly and remained the weakest, if not the 
poorest of the original colonies. 

The government at first was placed by the King 
in the hands of twenty-one trustees, whose power 
was to last twenty-one years, but before that time 
expired, they gave back their authority to the King 
(1752), and Georgia, like most of the others, became 
a royal colony. 

Oglethorpe followed Penn's policy in paying the 
Indians for the land used by his colonists, and this 
secured him the friendship of the Indians, who 
therefore gave the Georgia settlers very little trouble. 
Their nearness to Florida, however, often brought 
them into conflict with the Spaniards settled there, 
and for many years the two nations were almost at 
constant war, neither side gaining much advantage 
over the other. 

After spending ten years in Georgia, Oglethorpe 
returned to England, where he lived long enough 
to see the independence of the colony he had es- 
tablished acknowledged by Great Britain. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE WHITES AND THE INDIANS. 



Between the beginning of the settlement of the 
country at Jamestown in 1607 and the outbreak of 
the Revolutionary War in 1776 the number of white 
people in America had increased from one hundred 
to two and a half millions. By far the largest 
part of these were English, but by no means all. 
For besides the Dutch in New York, the Swedes in 
Delaware and in New Jersey, the French Huguenots 
in South Carolina, who have already been spoken 
of, there were scattered throughout the thirteen 
colonies many Germans, Scotch, Irish and people 
from other European countries, who, like the Eng- 
lish, had come here to secure for themselves and 
for their children, greater freedom and better homes 
than they could have any hope of ever obtaining in 
crowded Europe. 



The discomforts and sufferings of those wno first 
came were very great. Only a few could afford to 
build any but the plainest and cheapest houses. 
Most of them had to be content with log-cabins, 
without floors. Many had only bark huts, like the 
wigwams made by the Indians, and some had to 
live in holes dug in the ground. Their furniture 
was of the simplest kind, benches, stools, tables and 
bedsteads being all home-made; for the number of 
colonists who were able to bring these things with 
them across the ocean was very small. Carpets 
were unknown and their place supplied with sand 
sprinkled upon the floor. 

At first the settlements were all scattered along 
the coast, and were quite a distance apart. There 
were no roads between them, only bridle-paths and 



33 




MASSACRE OF SETTLERS. 



34 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Indian trails, and travelling from one to another 
was extremely difficult and dangerous. Journeys 
which we can now make in a few hours then took 
days and even weeks, and it was easier and safer to 
cross the ocean from America to England than to 
travel from New York to Boston. 

All of this, however, gradually improved. As the 
settlements increased in number and in size, the 
distance between them grew smaller. Roads were 
made and bridges built, so that regular intercourse 
could be held between towns and villages and 
between the difTerent colonies. And by the time 
the war of independence began, it was possible to 
journey through the entire range of settlements 
with some degree of comfort, if not with any great 
■degree of speed. 

With the growth in population and lapse of time, 
tne wealth of the colonists also increased. They 
were able to build better houses than they first 
occupied; to give up the clothes made of leather 
which they first wore, for garments of cloth ; and 
to surround themselves with many comforts and 
luxuries which at first they had been compelled to 
•do without. 

Though the colonists were still dependent upon 
England for the supply of many articles needed by 
them, and which could not be obtained in America, 
they amply paid for whatever they received with 
the tobacco, rice, indigo, furs and other valuable 
products raised by them. They became not only 
able to support themselves, to accumulate wealth 
and to pay the expenses of their town and colonial 
governments, but were also able to give money and 
ships to the King of England to aid him in carrj'ing 
on his wars. All the colonies were not equally 
prosperous, nor were all the settlers in each colony 
•equally well off, but they were on the whole all 
improving and constantly bettering their condition. 
Much of their wealth came from the labor of slaves, 
who, before the Revolution began, were to be found 
an all of the colonies. 

During a considerable part of the one hundred 
and seventy years of colonial history, the whites 
and Indians were on terms of friendship. Some of 
the colonies, as Georgia, New Jersey and Pennsyl- 
vania, by their just and kind treatment of the 
natives, remained at peace with them throughout 
all this time. Others were less wise or less fortu- 
nate and suffered cruelly at their hands. The early 
settlers in these colonies did not dare to attend 
church unarmed. They carried their weapons to 
the cornfield and kept them within reach when 
they went to bed at night. Block-houses were built 
large enough to cpntain all the people in the settle- 



ment, to be used in case of an Indian rising, and 
sometimes an entire village would be enclosed with 
a stockade or wall, to shut out the common enemy. 
The fault in these disturbances was sometimes on 
one side and sometimes on the other, but it^was 
oftener with the whites than with the Indians. The 
earliest explorers and colonists found the natives 
peaceable, generous and friendly, but when they 
were ill-treated or thought themselves wrongly used, 
they became revengeful and horribly cruel. And 
many of the whites did ill-treat them. They seemed 
to think the Indians had no right to the land they 
were occupying when the whites came, or to their 
other property, and they did not scruple to seize 
whatever they wished. In revenge the Indians 
would kill the first colonists they met, whether they 
were the wrong-doers or not. and this would bring 
on a general Indian outbreak. The wise foresight 
of Penn, Oglethorpe and the founders of some of 
the other colonies, in strictly insisting at the outset 
that neither land nor anything else must be taken 
from the Indians without their consent or without 
full payment, saved their settlements from much 
suffering, which other colonies brought on them- 
selves by showing less care for the rights of their 
Indian neighbors. Humanity and honesty proved 
the best policy with the Indians, as they have with 
other people. 

Few of the Indian outbreaks deserve the name of 
wars or need to be even mentioned. They were 
usually very brief, and onl)' a single village or a 
single colony would be concerned in them. Vir- 
ginia, New York, Georgia and most of the other 
colonies suffered more or less from such risings, 
and there are few towns or cities in the United 
States, two hundred years old, whose history does 
not contain some account of Indian troubles. 

Of the really serious difficulties with the Indians, 
by far the most important was the long series of 
wars in which the French settlers in Canada as well 
as the Indians were opposed to the English col- 
onists. But before coming to this there were two 
purely Indian wars which require some mention : 
the Pequot War and King Philip's War. 

The Pequots were a race of Indians living on 
the shores of Long Island Sound east of the Con- 
necticut River. They had had some disagreement 
with Massachusetts, and to revenge themselves at- 
tacked and killed a number of Connecticut settlers. 
Connecticut, aided by Massachusetts, sent a body 
of soldiers against them, who, though at first un- 
successful, by the end of the year (1637) entirely 
destroyed the tribe, killing nearly nine hundred of 
their number in battle. Had it not been for the 



THE WHITES AND THE INDIANS. 



35 



influence of Roger Williams in dissuading the Nar- 
ragansetts from join i ng the Pequots, the result of the 
war might not have been so favorable to the whites. 
In King Philip's War all of the New England colo- 
nies were concerned. It was brought about by a 
younger son of Massasoit, who had made the treaty 
with the Plymouth Pilgrims when they first landed, 
and who faithfully kept it during his long life. But 
he died in 1659, and his son (named by the whites 
King Philip), who then became chief of the Wam- 



former was found drowned. Thereupon the colo- 
nists seized three Wampanoag Indians and hung 
them upon suspicion of having committed the mur- 
der. This caused a war, for which the Indians had 
been already secretly preparing, to at once break 
out, and a number of towns in western Massachu- 
setts were attacked at almost the same moment and 
their inhabitants killed. 

All of the colonies in New England promptly 
united in defence, and the war thus begun lasted 




ATTACK ON THE PEQUOT FORT. 



panoags, was of different temper from his father, 
and looked upon the growing settlements of the 
English with a jealous eye, fearing that in time they 
would entirely drive out the Indians. He visited 
the various tribes from Maine to the Hudson, and 
persuaded them all to unite in a league against the 
colonists. 

This scheme or plot of Philip's was discovered by 
a converted native missionary and told to the mag- 
istrates of Plymouth. Not long afterwards the in- 



for two years (1675-1677), during which six hun- 
dred settlers lost their lives in open battle and an un- 
known but probably much larger number in mas- 
sacre and by starvation. Thirteen towns were de- 
stroyed and many more attacked and injured. The 
superior arms and better discipline of the whites 
at length proved too much for the Indians, who 
were driven back from point to point and finally 
were completely and overwhelmingly defeated. King 
Philip was killed and his son sold into slavery. 



36 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS. 



The French and Indian wars had their origin in 
difficulties and jealousies between the English and 
French settlers along the Mississippi River and in the 
Northwest, as Ohio and the region about it were then 
called. For while the English were busy in plant- 
ing their colonies on the Atlantic coast, the French 
were not only extending their settlements along 
the St. Lawrence in Canada, but were also estab- 
lishing themselves on the Mississippi River, and 



But as their colonies grew stronger and their pop- 
ulation larger, they began to push into the wil- 
derness, and this brought them into conflict with. 
the French. The first difficulty between the two 
nationalities arose as early as 1689, and was followed 
by others at frequent intervals, until the final strug- 
gle was ended in favor of the English in 1 763. These 
little wars usually had for their pretext European 
conflicts in progress at the time between France 




NEW ORLE.^NS. 



in northern New York, in Michigan, and at other 
points near the Canadian border in what is now 
the United States. They had obtained a grant of 
Louisiana (so named by them in honor of their King, 
Louis XIV.), and in 1718 founded the city of New 
Orleans, which soon became the most important 
point on the Mississippi. To secure the safety of 
these settlements they built a chain of forts, sixty 
in number, from New Orleans to Montreal. 

All of this mattered very little to the English at 
first, for while their settlements were few and small 
they did not venture very far back from the coast. 



and England, and the names given to them are 
generally those of the English king or queen during- 
whose reign they broke out. They really form but 
parts of one long war which had for its object the 
determination of the question which nation, the 
English or the French, was to rule North America. 
These earlier struggles, known as King William's 
War, Queen Anne's War, King George's War, etc.. 
though they scarcely desen-e such dignified names, 
resulted in no decided gain to either side, the 
French perhaps profiting a little more than the 
English. They were of slight importance in tliem- 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS. 



37 



■selves, but they gradual- 
ly led up to something 
which was of real im- 
portance and which is 
known in American his- 
tory as the French and 
Indian War. 

Unlike the minor wars 
which preceded this 
final contest between 
the settlers of these two 
nations, the French and 
Indian War originated 
on this continent and 
at a time when the par- 
ent countries in Europe 
v.ere at peace with each 
other. Its cause may be 
found in the attempt 
which was made by the 
English to open up and 
settle the western lands 
on a larger scale than had ever before been tried. 

About the middle of the last century some Lon- 
don merchants united with a number of Virginia 
planters to form the Ohio Company, which bought 
a large tract of land west of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains with a view to inducing settlers to move 
there. 

As soon as this Company began operations by 
sending out surveyors and traders and by making 
roads for emigrants, the French colonists became 
alarmed, justly fearing if the English succeeded in 





SCENE 

ON THE 

OHIO RIVER. 



UNLOADING A COTTON STEAMER AT NEW ORLEANS. 



settling that region as extensively as they planned 
that the French would soon be obliged to entirely 
withdraw from the interior of the continent and to 
content themselves with their Canadian possessions. 
To prevent this and to secure for themselves the 
land desired by the Ohio Company, the French in 
'753 P"t up a strong fort where the city of Erie 
now stands, and prepared to build other forts extend- 
ing from that point to the Ohio River. Virginia 
claimed this land as part of her territory and the 
governor of the colony sent George Washington, 
then only twenty-two years old, but who 
had already acquired distinction on the 
frontier as a sur\-eyor, to protest against 
this action oi the French. Though he was 
received with civility and courtesy, Wash- 
ington did not succeed in his mission and 
had to return with the refusal of the 
French commander to either give up the 
fort or to leave the disputed territory. 

During Washington's absence Virginia 
had raised a body of four hundred soldiers, 
and she promptly replied to this message 
by sending him back at the head of this 
force to protect a fort which the Ohio 
Company was building on the site of the 
city of Pittsburg. But the French were 
before him and had seized and strength- 
ened the fort, which they then named Fort 
Du Ouesne, before he could get there. 
They then hastened on to attack Wash- 
ington, who defeated their advance guard. 



38 



nrSTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



but who thought it wiser to fall back before the 
main body of the French, as it greatly exceeded in 
numbers his force. He retired to a small fort 
(named by him Fort Necessity) near Fort Du 
Quesne, and there (on July 4, 1754) he surrendered 
to the French on the condition that he and his sol- 
diers might return to Virginia. 

In the contest that followed, the French received 
very valuable aid from their Indian allies, as indeed 



they had all acted together, but they knew that this 
western land was necessary for the growth of their 
country and that all were equally interested in keep- 
ing out the French. England and France were at 
first disposed to let the colonists fight it out by 
themselves, but they soon became involved in one 
of their frequent wars with each other in Europe 
and so in self-defence sent troops to the aid of their 
settlers in America. 




ARRIVAL OF INDIAN AUXILIARIES AT FORT DU QUESNE. 



they had in their earlier difficulties with the Eng- 
lish. It was this which gave it the name of the 
French and Indian War. The French treatment of 
the Indians had been much more friendly than that 
of the English ; they had regarded them more as 
equals, had shown them greater kindness in every 
way, and so the Indians were far more willing to as- 
sist the French than they were to help the English. 
All the colonies rallied to the assistance of Vir- 
ginia and voted arms, money and men to fight the 
French. It was the first time in their historj' that 



At first the English were unsuccessful, for though 
they drove the French out of Nova Scotia and de- 
feated a body of French and Indians in northern 
New York near Lake George, they were badly beat- 
en in an attempt to capture Fort Du Quesne, and 
their commander. General Braddock, and half his 
force were killed. Washington served as an aide to 
Braddock in this campaign, and by his skill and 
coolness checked the pursuit of the enemy after the 
defeat and brought the survivors back to Virginia. 
This was in 1755, and for two years more the Eng- 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS. 



39 



lish did not do much better, for though they kept nient to lead the colonial troops. The French sol- 
attacking the French at many points they did not diers were a smaller body of men, but they were bet- 
succeed in gaining possession of the coveted coun- ter organized and had for their commander a briU- 




braddock's forces surprised by an ambuscade. 



try, but even lost the few forts they had built along 
the border between Canada and New York. 

The chief cause of these disasters was the poor 
quality of the officers sent by the British Govern- 



iant general (Montcalm), who with his few soldiers 
was more than a match for his opponents with their 
larger forces. In time England realized her mis- 
take, and by 1758 matters improved. More able 



40 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




GENERAL MONTCALM. 

commanders were sent to America, who, instead of 
frittering away their strength in a multitude of lit- 
tle and trifling engagements, attacked three points 
that were of real importance, and two of these they 
captured. These were Louisburg on Cape Breton 
Island and Fort Du Ouesne, which was then re- 
named Fort Pitt in honor of the Prime Minister of 
Great Britain, William Pitt. Ticonderoga (in New 
York), the third point of attack, was defended by 
Montcalm in person, and here the English were less 
fortunate, for though they tried again and again, 
Montcalm each time drove them back, and at length 
they had to retire, leaving fifteen hundred of their 
men dead behind them. Though they did not take 
Ticonderoga, the English did capture Fort Fronte- 
nac (where the Canadian city of Kingston now 
stands) and drove the French out of northwestern 
New York. 

From this time on the successes of the English 
were almost continuous, and the capture of Quebec 
in 1759 virtually ended the war, for after that the 
French forts surrendered as fast as the English ap- 
peared before them to demand it. Montcalm lost 
his life in battle on the Plains of Abraham before 
Quebec, as did also his English opponent. General 
Wolfe. The dying words of each showed the char- 
.acters of the two men. When Montcalm was told 



that he must die, he said : " So much the better ; I 
shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." 
W^olfe was mortally wounded when word was 
brought to him that the battle was won : " Then .( 
die happy," he said. 

By the close of 1760 Montreal and all the other 
American possessions of the French were in the 
hands of the English, and the French troops had 
returned to France. But though hostilities had 
ceased in this countr}', they did not end in Europe 
until 1763, when a treaty of peace was signed by the 
three countries (Spain had assisted France in Eu- 
rope) by which France gave up to Great Britain all 
of her. territory in America east of the Mississippi 
and to Spain what lay west of that river. From 
Spain England obtained Florida, in exchange for 
Havana. The district granted Spain extended from 
the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, and the 
name of Louisiana given it by the French was re- 
tained by Spain. France bought it back from Spain 
in 1800 and in 1S03 sold it to the United States. 

The French and Indian War did this great service 
for the colonists: it taught them to act together 
and in unison. It also gave them experience in 
warfare and in military matters. The colonial sol- 
diers fighting by the side of British troops gained 
both knowledge and confidence in themselves, and 
they and their officers learnt many a valuable lesson 
which a dozen years later they put to good use in 
the Revolutionary War. 




GE.NERAL WOLFE. 



SEPARATION FROM ENGLAND. 



41 



CHAPTER VII. 



SEPARATION FROM ENGLAND. 



How many boys and girls have ever noticed in 
looking at the American flag that it always has 
just thirteen stripes? And how many know that 
these stripes repre- 
sent the thirteen 
colonies whose set- 
tlement you have 
been read ing about? 
These were the first 
States, and though 
others have since 
come into the Un- 
ion whose territory 
is larger, whose pop- 
ulation is greater, 
and which are rich- 
er and perhaps more 
enterprising than 
■were some of these 
original colonies, 
yet the names of 
these t h i rteen 
should always be 
gratefully remem- 
bered by every 
American, for 
it was their self- 
denial, courage and 
perseverance which 
in the first place 
colonized the coun- 
trj', and in the sec- 
ond place freed it 
and made of it the 
Union. 

We have seen that 
each of these col- 
onies had some- 
thing different 
about it from the 
others. New York 
was Dutch, Penn- 
sylvania was Qua- 
ker, Maryland was 
Catholic, New Jer- 
sey Swedish, Massachusetts Puritan, and Virginia 
Cavalier. Even where the nationality and the re- 
ligion were the same a difference in the wealth of 
the setUers or in their character soon made itself 




ANDROS h PKISllX 
(From Buttirworth's "Vouns Folks 



apparent in differences in the laws and customs 
of the colonies, and Massachusetts was not the 
same as Connecticut or North Carolina the same 

as South Carolina. 
But whatever 
their differences 
might be they were 
alike in one respect: 
they were all jeal- 
ous of their rights; 
none of them liked 
English inter- 
ference in their af- 
fairs ; and each of 
them preferred to 
make its own laws 
and to govern itself 
rather than to be 
ruled by the British 
King or by the Brit- 
ish Parliament. 

This showed itself 
very early in their 
history when King 
James II., who 
seemed to believe 
that the people nei- 
ther in England nor 
America had any 
rights which he was 
bound to respect, 
attempted to take 
away the charters 
which had already 
been given the col- 
onies and sent over 
Sir Edmond An- 
dros to govern New 
England and New 
York without re- 
gard to law. For 
three years (1686- 
1689) the people op- 
posed and resisted 
him every way they 
could, and at length seized him by force and sent 
him back to London. Some of the other governors 
in New York and North Carolina fared no better; 
the people rose in arms and compelled them to 



ER IX BOS'KJX. 
History of the United States.") 



42 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



leave the country. In Virginia as well there was 
open rebellion, and the colonies were few in num- 
ber where there was not more or less resistance at 
times to the royal authority. 

From the outset the British government showed 
but little sympathy with the colonists, and seemed 
more disposed to hinder than to help them. They 
had scarcely got a start when the Navigation Laws 
were passed (1651) which forbade the settlers from 
trading with any other country than England or 
from permitting the vessels of any other nation to 
enter American ports. The colonists found these 
laws very oppressive and they were a constant 
source of griev- 
ance against the 
mother country. 
They were not, 
however, always 
strictly enforced, 
and the colonists 
managed by 
bribery and 
smuggling for 
the most part to 
evade them. 
Other laws pro- 
hibiting the 
manufacture of 
certain articles 
in America were 
almost as bur- 
densome as the 
Navigation 
Laws, and were 
disregarded in 
much the same 




^.\W 



way. 

Still, notwith- 
standing the tyrannical governors who at times 
were sent over to rule them, and notwithstanding 
what they felt to be the injustice of the Naviga- 
tion and Manufacturing Laws, the colonists on the 
whole were loyal to England and would probably 
have had no thought of revolting when they did, 
had not Great Britain begun to apply these laws 
with a vigor never before displayed, besides adopt- 
ing other measures even more distasteful to the 
colonies. 

For after the French and Indian Wars England 
seemed to suddenly wake to the growing size, 
wealth and importance of the settlements and to 
become uneasy at the liberty and freedom allowed 
them. She seemed to fear that unless steps were 
taken to check their progress towards self-rule 



they would soon wish to be entirely independent of 
her and to set up a separate government of their 
own. The feeling of indiilerence she had shown 
before disappeared, and in its place appeared a lively 
anxiety to restrain and control them while there was 
yet time. With this end in view she determined to 
carry out the Navigation Laws to the letter and also 
to obtain money from the colonists by taxation. 

Heretofore, while the colonies had very willingly 
taxed themselves to support the governors sent to 
them and for the administration of their own laws, 
they had not been called upon to pay any money to 
England, and they received with indignation this 

demand that 
"^ . . - they should help 

bear the expen- 
ses of a distant 
government in 
which they had 
no voice either 
as to how the 
money was to be 
raised or how it 
was to be spent. 
The cry of " no 
taxation without 
representation 
was at once 
raised, and the 
colonists re- 
solved to pay no 
tax levied by 
Great Britain. 

The first test 
of their resolu- 
tion came in 
1765, when Par- 
liament passed 
the Stamp Act. which required that all newspapers, 
almanacs, marriage certificates and legal docu- 
ments of every description should have on them 
stamps furnished by the English government and 
which must be bought from agents appointed to 
sell them in the colonies. The Americans acted 
quickly. As soon as the stamps arrived they were 
seized by mobs and burned, the stamp-officers were 
forced to resign their positions, and on the day ap- 
pointed for the law to go into effect not a stamp 
could be found in the colonies. The Stamp Act 
was a failure and in the following year it was re- 
pealed. 

But in abandoning this particular tax the British 
government had no thought of giving up its claim 
to the right to tax, and soon duties (as they arc 



THE STAMP ACT. 



SEPARATJON FROM ENGLAND. 



43 



to 



called) were imposed upon a number of articles im- 
ported to the colonies, as tea, glass, paper, paints 
and other things. These duties the colonists re- 
fused to pay. and agreed among themselves 
purchase nothing from England while 
she continued her attempt to tax 
them. In the meantime the Naviga- 
tion and Manufacturing Laws were 
enforced with the greatest severity, 
and soldiers were sent from England 
to aid the civil authorities in detect- 
ing and arresting smugglers and other 
violators of these laws, and these sol- 
diers the colonists were required to 
shelter and feed. New York and Bos- 
ton, to their credit be it said, refused 
to do this, and in those places other 
provision had to be made for these 
soldiers. 

The colonists had now entered upon 
a struggle with Great Britain which 
they meant to be peaceable, and 
which was peaceable at first, but which 
tended all the time towards warfare. The attempts 
of revenue officers to seize smuggled goods and ves- 
sels in which the goods had been brought were re- 
sisted and often led to street fights. The vast 




^9^f<S OF '.HUE B.TY;l^i',^,6i 

Ml'fl'l:r,"'::l'i?;i'i':6i::ijr;'ii!i.' . 



as many of them delighted to call themselves. 
As the contest went on, each side grew more bitter 
and exasperated. Parliament in its determination 
to find some way by which the colonists would be 
forced to pay a tax, and the Amer- 
icans in their resolution that nothing 
should induce them to pay one penny. 
In 1770 Parliament changed its 
tactics and tried to obtain by a trick 
what it had before been unable to se- 
cure openly. It took off the tax from 
everything but tea, and on that it re- 
duced the duty to three pence (six 
cents) a pound. Then it arranged 
with London merchants to sell the 
tea in the colonies at three pence a 
pound less than it was sold for iti 
England. By this device the tea with 
the tax added to its price would cost 
the colonists no more than they would 
have to pay for it in England. But it 
was the principle of ta.xation, not the. 
amount, that the Americans were 
struggling against, and they met this move as 
promptly as they had the attempt to impose stamps, 
upon them. At Philadelphia and some other 
places they sent the ships back to London with. 




DESTROYING THE TEA IN BOSTON HARBOR. 



majority of the Americans were united in their 
resolution to oppose by every means in their power 
foreign taxation ; but there were a few adherents of 
the mother-countr)'. They were called Tories ; their 
opponents were named Whigs, or " Sons of Liberty," 



all the tea on board. At Charleston the tea was 
placed (the chests unopened) in cellars, where the 
dampness soon ruined it. At Boston a number of 
citizens dressed themselves as Indians and in an 
orderly but resolute way proceeded to the shipu in 



44 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



the harbor and threw all the tea overboard. By 
one means or other the tea was gotten rid of at 
every place it had been sent to, and Parliament was 
once more thwarted in its plans to obtain money 
from the colonies. 

The action of the " Boston Tea-Party " especially 
angered the English government and in punishment 
it closed the port of Boston by forbidding all vessels 
cither to enter it or to leave it. Parliament also took 
away from the people of Massachusetts their right 
to make their own laws. The other colonies all 
sided with Massachusetts in her opposition to Eng- 
land, and the effect of these measures was only to 
strengthen still more the bond of colonial union. 
This sentiment was further increased by the pas- 
sage of other laws by Parliament at the same time 
that those afltecting Boston and Massachusetts were 



adopted, one of which ordered that all Americans 
accused of murder in resisting English laws should 
be sent to Great Britain for trial. The execution 
of these and other hateful acts was given to the 
British troops already in the colonies and the num- 
ber of which was now considerably increased. 

The Americans by this time had become thorough- 
ly roused and the excitement ran high. Each town 
felt that it might receive the same treatment as 
Boston, each colony knew that its liberties were no 
more safe than those of Massachusetts. There was 
a general demand for a Continental Congress, and 
one accordingly was chosen by the people and met 
in Philadelphia in September, 1774. Georgia was 
the only colony which did not send delegates, and 
she was only prevented from doing so by her gov- 
ernor. 




BRITISH GRENADIER. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MINUTE-MEN AT LEXINGTON AND 
AT BUNKER HILL. 

Three things of importance were done by this 
first Continental Congress, and the chief of these 
three was the preparation of two addresses, one to 
the people of Great Britain and one to King George, 
in which were recited the many wrongs which Parlia- 
ment had inflicted (or had attempted lo inflict) upon 
the Americans, and which again asserted the right 
of the colonists to govern themselves and not to be 
taxed without their own consent. Next it drew up 
an agreement neither to buy anything from Eng- 
land nor to sell anything to her, nor to transact 
business of any kind with her until Parliament re- 
pealed the laws which had been passed against the 
colonies. Copies of this agreement were sent mto 
ever}' town and village in America and were signed 
by the people everywhere. Lastly it promised to 
aid Massachusetts with troops from the other col- 
onies if they should be needed in her resistance t 
Great Britain's attempt to force her into submissii m 
Important as these three acts were, what was of far 
more importance was the evidence furnished by the 
meeting of the Congress itself that the colonies 
^ were thoroughly united in their determination to do 
everything in their power to maintain what thci 
knew to be their rights. 

Though the language of the Continental Congress 
was mild, its attitude was firm and unyielding, and 
every one felt that open war must soon come, and 




MINUTE-MAN. 



THE MINUTE-ME.X AT LJXIXGTON AND AT BUNKER HILL. 



45 



every one began to prepare for it. 
Massachusetts, it was plain, would 
be the first battle-ground, and 
there was the greatest activity — 
the people collecting and storing 
weapons, powder and shot, and the 
English governor (Gage) increas- 
ing the number of his soldiers and 
defending his position by erecting 
fortifications around Boston. 

The first blow was soon struck. 
Gage learned from spies, emploj'ed 
by him to find out what the colo- 
nists were doing, that about twenty 
miles from Boston, at Concord, the 
Americans had gathered together 
a quantity of ammunition and sup- 
plies. He determined to destroy 
these and sent for the purpose a 
body of eight hundred soldiers 
with orders to proceed as secretly 
as possible in order to surprise 
those in charge of the stores. 

But friends in Boston discov- 
ered the plan just before the party started and sent 
word by Paul Revere to the patriots, so that when 
at daybreak on the morning of April 19, 1775, the 
British soldiers entered Lexington on the road to 
Concord ihey were met by some seventy " minute- 





CHRIST CHURCH (WHERE THE SIGNAL LANTERN 
WAS DISPLAYED). 



BATTLE OF LEXINGTON. 

men," as the colonial militia were called from their 
being always ready on an instant's notice to take 
up their arms. The English opened fire and the 
Americans returned it. but after exchanging a few 
shots the Americans retired with eight of their men 
dead and a number of others wounded. The British 
then proceeded to Concord, destroyed the supplies 
collected there and started back towards Boston. 

But the Americans had not been idle while the 
English were accomplishing their work of destruc- 
tion. Warned by church-bell and messenger the 
whole country round about had become ablaze, and 
minute-men hurried from every quarter to meet the 
enemy on its return. At first the British march 
was orderly and the fire from the patriots was steadily 
and coolly returned, but as the number of the min- 
ute-men increased and from every point on the 
road affording the least shelter there was poured 
upon the English a constant stream of deadly shot, 
they lost their nerve and were chased by the colo- 
nists into Lexington on a run. There they were re- 
inforced by a fresh body of nine hundred soldiers 
whom Gage had sent to their relief and who were 
provided with cannon, and under their protection 
they at last reached Boston, pursued the whole dis- 
tance by the minute-men. The total number of 
Americans engaged was but four hundred, of v.-hom 
they lost eighty-eight. The killed, wounded and 
missing among the English numbered two hundred 
and seventy odd. 



46 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The die was cast. The war was begun. From it 
a nation was to emerge destined to become the 
£reest, wealthiest and probably in time the largest 
and most powerful on the face of the globe. An 
experiment in self-government was to be tried on a 
scale never before attempted and with results for 
good no man could have imagined possible. Could 




PAUL REVERE. 



they who laid down their lives at Lexington have 
foreseen the rich harvests their children were to 
reap they would have counted their own sacrifice as 
nothing. 

The minute-men who had pursued the English 
from Concord and from Lexington were speedily 
joined by others from the several New England col- 
onies, and soon twenty 
thousand surrounded 
Boston and were besieg- 
ing it on every side ex- 
cepting that towards the 
sea. Within the city the 
British forces were also 
increased until there were 
ten thousand men under 
command of Generals 
Howe, Clinton and Bur- 
goyne, who had come to 
the assistance of Governor 
Gage. The ten thousand 
English soldiers were 
well-armed, disciplined, 
experienced veterans; 
their twenty thousand op- 
ponents were for the most 
part raw farmers, with no 
knowledge of the art of 
war, untrained, poorly 
supplied with weapons, 
with no cannon and with 
little food. The greater 
number of the Americans 
was thus offset by the 
greater efficiency of their 
enemy. 

h^Drth of Boston are two 
hills, Bunker and Breed's, 
the first of which the 
Americans decided to for- 
tify. By mistake the par- 
ty sent under Colonel 
Prescott to do this select- 
ed Breed's Hill, which was 
nearer to Boston than 
Bunker Hill. They 
worked at night as silently 
and as rapidly as possible 
and by daybreak, when 
the British discovered 
what was going on, had 
thrown up a long Ime of 
entrenchments fac- 
ing Boston. The English 



THE MINUTE MEN AT LEXINGTON AND AT BUNKER HILL. 47 




THE BATTLE OF EUXKER HILL. 



men-of-war in the harbor at once began to bombard 
these fortifications, but without preventing the 
Americans from continuing their work of strength- 
ening their position. Then three thousand soldiers 
were sent to dislodge the workmen and to capture 



the place. The fifteen hundred minute-men, with- 
out offering to fire a shot, calmly watched their as- 
sailants march up the Hill, while from every house- 
top in the city multitudes anxiously looked on, 
wondering if the undisciplined Yankee farmers 



48 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




PLAN OF BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 



would Stand a single round 
from their seasoned and 
battle - tried opponents. 
Not until the British were 
within' one hundred and 
fifty feet of the breast- 
works was this question 
answered, and then there 
was a flash of fire from the 
entrenchments, part of the 
attacking column fell, and 
the rest, routed, were fly- 
ing back. 

Urged on by their offi- 
cers they turned at the foot 
of the Hill to renew the 
assault. The Americans 
waited in the same silence 
as before until the Eng- 
lish were close at hand 
and again with their fatal 
fire drove them down the 
Hill. Once more the Brit- 
ish re-formed and for the 
third time ascended the 
Hill to attempt the cap- 
ture. This time they suc- 
ceeded, for the Americans 




MOXU.MENT AT BU.N'KER HILL. 



had exhausted their am- 
munition and, although 
they fought desperately 
with stones and used their 
guns as clubs, the British 
bayonets were too much 
for them and they were 
obliged to retreat, leaving: 
the fortifications they had 
so gallantly defended in 
the hands of the enemy. 
, This Battle of Bunker 
Hill, as it has always been 
called and probably al- 
ways will be, was fought 
on June 17, 1775, and was 
of the greatest ser\'ice 
to the colonial cause in 
showing that Continental 
troops, unused to war as 
they were, could stand fire 
and were not afraid to 
meet veterans in battle. 
It gave the Americans a 
confidence in themselveSi 
at the start which even in 
their worst reverses they 
never afterwards lost. 



WASHINGTON IN COMMAND. 



49) 



CHAPTER IX. 



WASHINGTON IN COMMAND. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

While the siege of Boston was in progress and 
before the Battle of Bunker Hill took place, Con- 
gress met again (May 10, 1775) at Philadelphia and, 
still asserting its loyalty to the King, declared that 
as Parliament had begun the war upon the colo- 
nies they would defend themselves until their rights 
and liberties were respected. Provision was made 
for raising troops in addition to those around Bos- 
ton, the whole to form a Continental Army of 
which George Washington was appointed Com- 
mander-in-Chief. A system of taxation was also 
adopted and laws passed for the government of the 
country as long as the trouble with England lasted. 

Two weeks after the Battle of Bunker Hill Wash- 
ington arrived at the camp before Boston and be- 
gan his task of drilling the besiegers into an effec- 
tive body of soldiers. While he was thus busy other 
Americans were planning an invasion of Canada. 
Shortly after the Le.xington fight, Ticonderoga had 
been captured by some Connecticut militia under 
Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, and a day or 
two later Crown Point also fell into their hands 



and with it a large number of cannon and a quan- 
tity of powder — two things greatly needed by the 
young colonial armjr. The possession of these twc>' 
places left the way clear through New York to Can- 
ada. Accordingly, in the latter part of the sum- 
mer of 1775 two parties set out, one under Generals' 
Montgomery and Schuyler by way of Lake Cham- 
plain, and the other under Benedict Arnold which> 
was to force its way through the Maine wilderness 
and join the first division in front of Quebec. 
The expedition was a failure, for though Montreat 
was taken, Quebec was too strong for the Americaa 
attack, and after spending the winter in a fruitless 
effort to capture the city, Arnold, who by the illness 
of Schuyler and death of Montgomery had risert 
to the chief command, was forced in the spring of 
1776 to abandon the attempt and to leave Canada, 
what it has since remained, an English possession. 
By March, 1776, Washington had got his army 
into better shape than he found it when he was made 
its general, and was ready to repeat the attempt 
which had failed the previous June. He had kept 
the British closely confined to Boston all winter 
and now thought it time to drive them out. Select- 
ing a hill to the south of the city, called Dorchester 
Heights, he took possession of it at night and, aidr^ 




GEORGE III. 



50 



H2S70RY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




yUtUliC, SHOWING THE CITADEL. 

■ed by a storm, had it strongly fortified before the against them 
English commander in Boston, General Howe, was the news of 
able to attack it. 
As the guns from 
Dorchester 
Heights complete- 
ly commanded the 
city, Howe con- 
cluded it best to 
leave, and on 
March 17, 1776. set 
sail for Halifax, 
and the Ameri- 
cans entered Bos- 
ton. No further 
events of impor- 
tance occurred in 
Massachusetts 
•during the Revo- 
lution, and in fact 
all of New Eng- 
land was from this 
time forth com- 
paratively f ree 
from the British. 

Thus far the 
■colonies had been gUtuEC 



fighting the Eng- 
lish Parliament 
and not the King. 
But matters could 
not go on in that 
way much longer, 
and early in 1776 
the question of 
separation from 
Great Britain be- 
gan to be more 
generally consid- 
ered and discuss- 
ed than it had 
been be fore. 
Throughout the 
quarrel King 
George III. had 
constantly sided 
■with Parliament 
and had approved 
all its measures 
aimed at the in- 
jury of the Ameri- 
cans. Hedis- 
played as much 
bitter feeling 
as did any of his subjects. When 
the battle of Bunker Hill reached 




WASHINGTON IN COMMAND. 



51 



England, he at once arranged to send 
twenty-five thousand more troops to 
conquer the " rebels " as he called them, 
among whom were a large number of 
Hessians, said to be the most cruel and 
inhuman of hireling soldiers. He or- 
dered that all trade with the colonies 
be stopped and authorized their mer- 
chant ships to be seized and destroyed 
by any one wherever found. With his 
assent a number of towns on the coast 
were bombarded and ruined. 

These actions at length had their 
natural effect in destroying the feelings 
of personal loyalty which had hitherto 
influenced the Americans, and caused 
them to regard the King as no less 
their enemy than were his ministers. 
They were forced to abandon all hope 
of obtaining redress from him, as they 
had before given up hope of securing 
it from Parliament. Their thoughts 
thereupon turned towards a complete 
separation from the mother-country. 

The first step towards independence 
was taken by the colonies themselves 
on the advice of the Continental Con- 
gress, and consisted of the formation of 
State governments in place of the colo- 
nial ones which had already been overturned by the 
disagreement with Great Britain. 1 his was done in 





INTERIOR OF INDEPENDENCE HALL IN Io"q. 



INDEPENDENCE HALL, I'lULADELI^HI A. 

May and June. 1776, and after that date the word 
" colory " was no longer used, the word " State " 
taking its place. The next 
step followed immediately; 
Virginia took the lead in 
directing her delegates in 
Congress to vote for inde- 
pendence and the other 
States were not slow in 
seconding her action. A 
committee was appointed 
by Congress to draw up 
suitable resolutions and the 
Declaration of Independ- 
ence prepared by that Com- 
mittee was adopted on July 
4, 1776, and the United 
States became one of the 
nations of the world. 

Immediately after the 
British sailed from Boston 
AVashington hastened to 
New York and began to 
collect an army and to 
fortify the city. He sue- 



52 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ceedcd in getting together some twenty thousand August 27, 1776, attacked a post of five thousand 

men, but like those he found at Boston they were Americans whom Washington had stationed near 

poorly armed and without experience in war. Gen. Brooklyn, then a small village. The American* 
















'"jQt.^ ^^i^^^x^^y^'^^^^ 



FAC-SI.MILE OF IHE t>l(iNATUKE:i TO THE UECLAKAXrON UF INDEl'LN DENCE. 

Howe had come from Halifax to Staten Island and were utterly defeated and nearly half of their num- 

his force had been increased to thirty thousand prac- ber slain and taken prisoners. The remainder took, 

tised soldiers. Taking with him about half of his refuge in a fort which had been erected in Brooklyn, 

men, Howe crossed over to Long Island and on and two days later, under cover of a fog, were 



54 



JUS TORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



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WASHIXGTON READING THE DECLARAIION OF 
INDEPENDENCE TO THE ARMY. 

brought by Washington to New York. Howe fol- 
lowed him, and Washington, making only a show 
of resistance, retreated to the hills near Peekskill. 



Leaving Gen. Charles Lee in command at that 
point, Washington crossed the Hudson with five 
thousand of his men and was followed by the 
British under Lord Cornwallis, who gradually drove 
the Americans across New Jersey to the Delaware 
River. This they crossed in open boats among 
cakes of floating ice (it was now December), but the 
exposure, the rapid retreat and the privations they 





WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAV/AR5 



GENERAL CHARLES LEE. 

suffered reduced the number 
of Washington's soldiers to 
three thousand, and the Eng- 
lish felt confident that, as soon 
as the river froze over so that 
they could cross in safety, they 
could overtake Washington 
and by again defeating him 
end the war. 

But Washington had a sur- 
prise in store for them. Se- 
lecting twenty-five hundred of 
his best men, on the night of 
Christmas, 1776, he secretly 
recrossed the Delaware and 
by daylight had surrounded 
the city of Trenton, whose en- 
tire garrison consisting of a 
thousand Hessians were cap- 
tured with the loss of only 



THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA AND THE VICTORY AT SARATOGA. 55; 



four Americans. Hurrjing with his prisoners to 
Philadelphia he left them there and at once re- 
turned to Trenton. The British forces from all 
parts of New Jersey quickly gathered at Trenton, 
and for the moment it looked as though Washington 
had allowed himself to be entrapped between the 
enemy on the one side and the river on the other. 



But he was equal to the emergency. Breaking- 
camp at the dead of night he skirted the English en- 
campment and marching to Princeton attacked and 
defeated three regiments stationed there and escap- 
ed to the mountains about Morristown in northern 
New Jersey, where Cornwallis, who had started ia 
pursuit, did not think it best to follow him. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE LOSS OF PHILADELPHIA AND THE VICTORY AT SARATOGA. 



~)URIN"G the third year of the war, 1777, the two 
, ents of most importance were the capture of Phila- 
delphia by the British and the defeat of Burgoj'ne 
by the Americans. Scarcely less notable was the 
addition to the Revolutionary army of a number of 
European officers, who volunteered their services to 
Washington through sj-mpathy with the American 
cause. Of these the most distinguished were the 
Marquis de la Fayette, who secretly fitted out a 
ship and sailed to America against the orders of 
the French government ; Baron de Kalb, a German 
nobleman of distinction, and two Polish patriots, 
Kosciusko and Pulaski. Another very valuable ac- 
cession was made the following year in the person 



of Baron von Steuben, who was of great service in; 
improving the tactics of the republican army. 

The opening of 1777 found the Americans- 
strongly entrenched at Morristown in New Jersey 
and at Peekskill on the Hudson, from both oi 
which positions the British were anxious to dis- 
lodge them, as well as to seize Philadelphia, then 
the largest city in the countr)'. Fearing to attack 
Philadelphia directly by marching his soldiers across 
New Jersey in face of the American army, Howe 
sailed in July with eighteen thousand men from 
Staten Island without letting it be known where he 
was bound, and Washington was compelled to wait 
in New Jersey until he learned that the vessels had 




VIEW OF WASHINGTON'S QUARTERS AT MORRISTOWN. 



56 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



been seen in Chesapeake Bay. As this showed 
without doubt that Philadelphia was the object of 
ithe expedit-ion, Washington hastened to the de- 
fence of the city, but only to be twice defeated, at 
Brandywine and Germantown (September and Oc- 
tober, 1777), and Philadelphia fell into the hands 
of the British. 

Congress had fled from Philadelphia before it 
■ was captured by Howe, and after his defeats Wash- 
ington moved his army to Valley Forge, a small 
^place on the Sphuylkill, where he was near enough 




PENERAL GATES. 

■•to Philadelphia t,o -attack- ^he English if they left 
the city. Here the Americans passed the winter of 
1777-78. suffering everj'. manner of hardship from 
the cold, poorly housed, badly clad, with scanty 
food, and many of them with no boots or shoes to 
protect their bare feet from- the snow and ice. Rut 
through all the horrors of that dismal season Wash- 
ington did not despair. Patient, hopeful and confi- 
.dent in their final success, he; held up the courage 
.of his men, and was firm in his refusal to leave the 



point from which in the end he thought he could 
most injure the enemy. And despite the miseries 
of Washington's army, the American prospects 
were much brighter than they had been a year be- 
fore — thanks to Schuyler and Gates in New York, 
whose victories over Burgoyne were far more im- 
portant than Washington's ill-success in Pennsyl- 
vania. 

The English greatly desired to gain control of the 
Hudson River, both because it would shut off New 
England from the rest of the country and because 
it was the easiest and most direct road to 
Canada. As the American position at Peek- 
skill was too strong to be taken from the 
south, they determined to attempt it from 
the north ; and so about the time that Wash- 
ington was hastening to the defence of 
Philadelphia a British army of ten thou- 
sand men was moving from Canada under 
command of Sir Edward Burgoyne. Op- 
posed to him was Gen. Schuyler with some 
five thousand men. 

Ticonderoga was easily captured by Bur- 
goyne, and Schuyler fell back before him 
towards Albany, destroying bridges and 
blocking up the road behind him as he 
proceeded. At the mouth of the Mohawk 
River, where it unites with the Hudson, 
both armies came to a halt, Schuyler await- 
ing the aid of more troops, and Burgoyne 
hesitating to attack the Americans in their 
strong position on the river islands where 
they had camped. 

During the pause which followed, meant 
by Burgoyne to be a very brief one, but 
which proved in the end a fatal one to him, 
he sent out two expeditions, one to the 
/ west to take Fort Schuyler on the site of 

the present city of Rome (New York), and 
one to the east to attack Bennington (Ver- 
mont). The first was defeated by Benedict 
Arnold and driven into Canada. The other 
suffered as severely at the hands of Col. 
Stark, whose short and famous speech to his men 
before the battle: " There they are, boys ; we must 
beat them to-day or this night Mollie Stark's a 
widow," will not soon be forgotten. 

The British loss in these two engagements weak- 
ened Burgoyne most seriously, while the Ameri- 
can force against him had in the mean time been 
strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops sent to 
its assistance by Congress. Prevented from re- 
treating by the militia which had now closed up his 



AID FROM FRANCE. 



57 



rear, he crossed to the west bank of the Hudson 
with the intention of descending the river and 
pushing his way through the American lines. In 
this he was checked by Gates, to whom Congress 
had given the command in place of Schuyler, and 
who, though he did not in the two battles of Bemis 
Heights and Stillwater succeed in driving the 
English from the field, yet so hemmed them in that 
they soon could neither advance nor recede. Bur- 
goyne tried to hold his men together until Clinton, 
who he knew was on his way from New York, 
could arrive with reinforcements, but he was with- 
out provisions, his force had become reduced to six 
thousand men who were worn out with hunger and 
fatigue, and at last, on October 17, 1777, he sur- 
rendered to Gates at Saratoga. 

Gates not only reaped the fruit of Schuyler's well- 
planned campaign, but he took all the credit of 
the result, and was the hero of the hour. The 
gloom which had rested upon the country in conse- 
quence of the loss of Philadelphia and Washing- 
ton's reverses in Pennsylvania lifted, and so great 
was the exultation and so popular was the victor 
that an effort was even made in Congress to deprive 
Washington of the chief command of the Conti- 
nental Army and to give it to Gates. Happily for 
the republic it failed. Washington retained the 
command that he alone in the difficulties of the 




GENERAL BURGOVNE. 

time was fitted to hold, and in the course of a few 
years more brought the war to a successful close. 



CHAPTER XI. 



AID FROM FRANCE. 



Besides increasing the confidence of the patriots 
in their cause and removing the danger of any 
further attempt at an invasion from Canada, Bur- 
goyne's defeat was of especial value to the Ameri- 
cans in securing for them the open aid of France in 
continuing the war. Her long enmity with Eng- 
land had already insured them her private sympa- 
thy and some secret help. But though she rejoiced 
when by the adoption of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence the United States separated themselves 
from Great Britain, she feared at first that they 
would not be equal to the task they had assumed, 
and that if she became their ally the chief burden 
of the contest would fall upon her. The Saratoga 
victory lessened this fear and proved that the 
Americans would bear their full share in any war 
to which they were a party. She was, therefore, 
now willing to become publicly known as their 



friend, and to enter into an alliance with them. 
Thanks mainly to Benjamin Franklin, who was the 
American agent in Paris throughout the Revolu- 
tion, and who did much to shape public opinion 
there favorably to his country, a treaty was signed 
early in 1778 by which France agreed to send four 
thousand soldiers and sixteen ships of war to the 
assistance of the Americans. 

This put a different face upon the war, and Eng- 
land became quite willing to grant to the United 
States all that she had previously refused them, and 
offered them freedom from taxation and representa- 
tion in Parliament if they would give up the French 
alliance and join her in a war upon her old enemy. 
This the Americans declined to do. They neither 
wished to throw off their new friends nor to connect 
themselves again with Great Britain. Nothing but 
absolute independence would now content them. 



58 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




The benefits from the French treaty proved to 
be less in the troops and ships sent to this country, 
which until the closing acts of the war were of little 
real aid, than in the money and supplies loaned by 
France to Congress. For these were the great 
needs of the time. The government, hastily formed 
when the war first broke out, and which consisted 
only of the Continental Congress, was a very im- 
perfect one and with very indefinite powers, and it 
had great difficulty in obtaining money to pay the 
soldiers and to buy necessary supplies, so that the 
loans from France were of the greatest service to the 
Americans in aiding them to carry on the war. 
Another important result of the treaty was the 
European war it caused between France and Spain 
on the one side and Great Britain on the other, 
and this helped the Americans by preventing Eng- 
land from devoting so much attention to this 
country. All of these things combined made the 
assistance of France at this time extremely valu- 
able to the Revolutionists, for without it the war 
would undoubtedly have lasted many more years 
than it did. 

When the news of the formation of the French 
alliance reached Philadelphia, General Clinton, who 
had succeeded Howe in the command, decided to 



withdraw to New York in order to strengthen the 
British forces there as much as possible before 
the arrival of the expected French fleet. Wash- 
ington, still encamped at Valley Forge, await- 
ing this opportunity, hastened after him in the hope 
of detaining him in New Jersey until the French 
should come. At Monmouth the two armies met 
and fought, but darkness came upon them before 
any decisive result was reached, and during the 
night Clinton succeeded in drawing off his men to 
New York. Had it not been for what was after- 
wards thought to be treachery on the part of Gen. 
Charles Lee in retreating when he had been ordered 
to attack, Washington might have won the battle. 
Lee was second in command, and at the outbreak 
of the war was regarded as one of the most brilliant 
officers on our side. For his conduct at Monmouth, 
followed by insolence to Washington, he was dis- 
missed from the servdce. 

Clinton transferred his forces from Philadelphia 
to New York in June, 1778. In July the French 
arrived, but their larger vessels were unable to en- 
ter the harbor of New York, so that the attack 
upon that city was abandoned, and the French 
sailed to the West Indies to defend their possessions 
among those islands. Washington, after the battle 
of Monmouth, resumed his old position on the 
Hudson near Peekskill, with a line extending 




SIR HENRY CLINTON. 



THE WAR IN THE SOUTH AND ARNOLD'S TREASON. 



59 



across to Morristown, ready to meet the British if 
they ventured towards New England, Philadelphia, 
or Camden — the three points most likely to be the 
objects of any land-attack from New York. This 
position he maintained for three years, carefully 



watching every sign of movement of the enemy, 
and by his vigilance preventing their doing any- 
thing of moment either in the Middle States or in 
New England. During the remainder of the war 
the principal events took place in the South. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE WAR IN THE SOUTH AND ARNOLD'S TREASON. 



The close of the year 1778 saw the first of the 
operations in the South, when an expedition sent 
by Clinton (by sea) captured Savannah. Augusta 
soon followed, and before long all of Georgia was 
overrun by British troops from New York and 
Florida. As yet the United States had practically 
no navy, and the French war vessels were rarely at 
hand when needed, so that no matter how strong 
Washington's land-blockade around New York 
might be, he was without any means of preventing 
Clinton from shipping his men to whatever port in 
the country he desired. 

Congress had built a few naval vessels, but they 
had either been captured by the English or were 
too small to contend against the British frigates. 
A little later on a few ships were obtained from 
France, and fitted out as American men-of-war. 
One of these, named the " Bonhomme Richard," 
under command of Paul Jones, met two frigates oflE 
the northeastern coast of England (Sept., 1779), ^fd 
there was fought one of the most notable battles in 
naval history. Jones lashed his ship to the " Serapis " 
(one of the frigates), and a hand-to-hand struggle 
followed, in which the loss of life on both sides 
was something enormous. The" Serapis" finally sur- 
rendered, but the " Richard " was so badly damaged 
that she sank the next day. The other frigate was 
captured by two smaller vessels, consorts of the 
" Bonhomme Richard," and this was the only part 
they took in the fight. No other engagement of 
any great consequence occurred on the ocean dur- 
ing the war. 

But though the American navy during the Revo- 
lution was little more than a name (if it was even 
that), American privateersmen were something much 
more real, and the destruction inflicted by them 
upon British commerce was so very serious ttiat it 
formed an important element in the war, and caused 
the English trading-classes to become very desirous 
of bringing the contest to a speedy end. Some of 
the privateersmen acted under the authority of 



Congress, and some under that of the separate 
States. The smaller war-ships built by Congress, 
which were not powerful enough to attack men-of- 
war, also employed themselves in worrying mer- 
chantmen of the enemy, and at one time for a 
brief period almost put an entire stop to England's 
foreign cotimierce. 




PAUL JONES. 

The British having gained control of Georgia, and 
kept it despite a vigorous attempt of Gen. Lincoln 
(the American commander in the South) to retake 
Savannah (Sept., 1779), they next turned their at- 
tention to South Carolina, and early in 17S0 a large 
force sailed from New York under command of 
Clinton himself and, aided by troops from Georgia, 
laid siege to Charleston. Lincoln defended it to 
the best of his ability, but was at length compelled 
to surrender it (May, 1780), and with it his army of 



6o 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



six thousand men. The whole State was then 
overrun as Georgia had been, and Clinton, satisfied 
with his work, returned to New York, leaving Corn- 
wallis in command. 

But though South Carolina and Georgia had been 
conquered, they did not lead their masters a very- 
easy life. Gates, on whom the halo of Saratoga still 
rested, was first sent by Congress to take Lincoln's 
place, but his failure in his first Southern battle 
(Camden, N. C, August, 1780), notwithstanding 



knowing the countrj' as only those born and brought 
up in it could, were able, from their hiding-places in 
forest and in swamp, to suddenly surprise the enemy 
with most unexpected attacks, to inflict the in- 
jury they had planned, and to dej)art as quickly as 
they had appeared. 

While the attention of the people was fixed 
upon the South as the principal theatre of war, 
an event occurred in the North which produced a 
profound sensation throughout all the country and 




P.\UL JONES' SEA FIGHT. 



his soldiers twice outnumbered the enemy, caused 
him quickly to give way to Gen. Nathanael Greene, 
who proved himself to be the one man for the 
work. Cautious, brave and alert, he kept the en- 
emy constantly busy in long pursuits and in numer- 
ous battles, in which he was almost uniformly 
beaten, but in which the British losses were so 
much heavier than his own that his defeats were 
almost as valuable as victories would have been. He 
was ably seconded by Marion, Sumter, Morgan 
and other brilliant Southern cavalry officers, who. 



which might have been disastrous to the American 
cause. This was the treason of Benedict Arnold. 

When the British left Philadelphia Arnold was 
given charge of the city, and there, tempted to spend 
more than he could aflord, he used public money 
for his own purposes. For this, at the direction of 
Congress, he was reprimanded by Washington. 
Smarting with mortification and burning with re- 
venge, he yet concealed his real purposes and after 
a time applied for the command of West Point. 
This was granted by Washington, who still had 



THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS AND THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 6i 



confidence in him on account of his earlier services 
in the war. No sooner had he reached his new 




BENEDICT ARNOLD. 



post than he wrote to Clinton at New York, offer- 
ing to turn the place over to the English for a sum 



of money and the position of brigadier-general in 
the British army. The offer was accepted and a 
young English officer. Major Andre, was sent to 
West Point to com- 
plete the arrange- 
ments. On his way 
back to New York he 
was taken prisoner 
near Tarrytown by 
three militiamen, who, 
on searching him, dis- 
covered plans of the 
fortifications at West 
Point hidden in his 
boots. Unfortunately, 
the officer in whose 
custody he was placed 
gave him an oppor- 
tunity to write to 
Arnold, who, thus 

warned, escaped into the British lines before he 
could be captured. As Andre had been taken in 
disguise within the American lines, Washington 
reluctantly felt that there was no choice but to 
have him hung as a spy that others might be 
warned by his fate, and this was done (Oct., 1780), 
though the sympathy with him was almost universal. 




MAJOR ANDRi. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS AND THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 



Clinton was as desirous of subduing Virginia as 
he had been of overcoming Georgia and South 
Carolina, and the first task set Arnold on his re- 
ceiving the reward of his villainy, was to lead an 
expedition from New York to the " Old Dominion " 
(January. 1 78 1 ). Lafayette was sent by Washing- 
ton to stop him, but could do nothing, as the French 
ships which were to help him were driven off by 
English men-of-war, so that Arnold plundered the 
State at will. Cornwallis, who in the course of his 
struggle with Greene had shifted his ground from 
Charleston to Wilmington (in North Carolina), de- 
termined to join the British forces in Virginia and 
try to complete its conquest. This he did, and sta- 
tioned himself at Yorktown, which from its position 
on a peninsula he thought could be easily defended, 
and which also could readily be reached by British, 
vessels. His combined army numbered eight thou- 
sand men, fully double as many as Lafayette's. 

Cornwallis had scarcely got settled at Yorktown 



when Washington, still at Peekskill, received word 
that a large French force was on its way to the 
Chesapeake to cut off the British in Virginia from 
any assistance from the North. This was the chance 
for which he had been waiting, and his plans were 
quickly formed. Concealing his purpose from every 
one, he made a great show of preparation about 
New York to lead Clinton into thinking that that 
city was to be attacked, and under cover of the 
confusion began a rapid march to the South, hop- 
ing to arrive at Yorktown and capture Cornwallis 
before the British in New York could send relief to 
their countrj'men. 

His plan was successful. Clinton did not discover 
Washington's departure for several days, and when 
he learned the object of the movement and sent a 
British fleet to the aid of Cornwallis it was too late. 
The French had arrived at the Chesapeake and pre- 
vented the English from landing. 

Before the arrival of Washington, Lafayette had 



62 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



been reinforced with soldiers from the French fleet, 
and Washington also had with him a large body of 
soldiers which General De Rochambeau had brought 
over from France during the 
summer. Altogether there 
were sixteen thousand men 
who on the 30th of September, 
1 78 1, began the siege of York- 
town, a force amply large to 
shut the British completely 
off on the land side, while the 
French fleet under Admiral 
De Grasse as securely closed 
them in from the ocean. 

Cornwallis was fairly trap- 
ped, and knew it. For three 
weeks he fought desperately 
to escape, but the line around 
him was too strong, and at 
last he had to give in, and on 
October 19, 1 781, he laid down 
his arms and surrendered his 
army of eight thousand men 
to Washington. Had he held 
out a few days longer he might 
have been relieved, for an ex- 
pedition of seven thousand 
menwason its way to him from 
New York, but this sailed back on learning his fate. 

This ended the Revolution, for though no treaty 




CORNWALLIS. 



was signed till two years afterwards, there were 
no more battles fought, and both sides, tired of 
the struggle, were quite content to cease all war- 
fare while the two countries 
were settling upon the terms 
of peace. As finally agreed 
upon, the treaty placed the 
boundaries of the United 
States at Canada on the north, 
the Mississippi River on the 
west, and Florida on the south, 
and by it Great Britain fully 
recognized the independence 
of the country. Without wait- 
ing for its formal signing, the 
British gave up Savannah and 
Charleston in July and De- 
cember, 1782, retaining posses- 
sion only of New York and a 
few unimportant forts in the 
Northwest. New York re- 
mained in their hands a year 
longer, until news was received 
that the treaty had been rati- 
fied, and then that city also 
passed again to the controj of 
the Americans — the last Brit- 
ish soldier leaving it on 
November 25, 1783, a day whose anniversary is still 
observed in New York as " Evacuation Day." 




THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS AT VORKTOWN. 



FRAMING THE CONSTITUTION. 



63 



CHAPTER XIV. 



FRAMING THE CONSTITUTION. 



The war was over, the army was disbanded, the 
Tories had left the country with their friends the 
British, and Washington had given back to Con- 
gress the commission of Commander-in-Chief which 
he had received from Congress. Peace had come, 
a peace which brought with it all that the country 
for nearly ten years had been striving for, absolute 
freedom and the right of self-government. 

But it had also brought some other things with 
it: among them great discontent among the ofh- 
'cers and men, who after enduring the most cruel 
sufferings and privations in the war received for 
their pay at its close only empty promises from 
Congress; paper money, which Congress had no 
means of redeeming and which soon became ut- 
terly worthless; and a weak general government 
which had very little authority and no power to 
enforce what little it had. 

At the beginning of the war when the colonies 
became States they all adopted constitutions and 
formed governments which served excellently for 
their own separate needs. But they did nothing of 
the kind for the country at large. All that they 
did was to send delegates to the Continental Con- 
gress without giving them any real power to make 
laws or to tax the people. When Congress re- 
quired money it was obliged to ask the States for it, 
and they gave it or not as they saw fit. In the 
early days of the conflict when there was great fear 
of England, the States were willing to do. and did 
do, pretty much everything requested of them, but 
after Burgoyne's surrender, when their confidence in 
themselves grew stronger. Congress had great diffi- 
culty in obtaining from them even a small part of 
what was actually needed to carry on the war, and 
at tim.es the supply of food and clothing furnished 
the troops was so scanty that the soldiers rose in 
open rebellion, and Washington had the utmost 
trouble in pacifying them. 

What had been bad during the Revolution grew 
much worse in the peace that followed, and soon 
there was the utmost disorder throughout the 
whole country. The States quarrelled among them- 
selves about their boundaries; the larger ones passed 
laws which pressed heavily upon the smaller ones; 
the wishes and advice of Congress were disre- 
garded more and more, so that it soon became the 
laughing-stock of the people. As a consequence 



of this condition of affairs there was distress every- 
where, and for a time it looked as though the free- 
dom which had been so dearly bought would prove 
a curse instead of a blessing. 

This could not go on. The leading men saw 
that, if the country was to prosper and the newly 
won independence be of any benefit, the States 
must be united under some form of general govern- 
ment that had power both to make laws and to en- 
force them, a government that the people would 
respect because they would be compelled to obey it. 
A call was therefore issued for a convention of 
delegates from all the States to draw up a plan for 
the remedy of the evils under which the country 
was suffering. 

In May, 1787, this Federal Convention met at 
Philadelphia, Rhode Island alone refusing to be 
represented. The States sent their ablest men, 
many of them young in years, but with unusual ex- 
perience in public affairs gained during the Rev- 
olutionary War and the troubles which led to it. 
Washington was chosen its president. No one was 
admitted to its meetings but the delegates, and they 
pledged themselves to say nothing of its proceed- 
ings until its work was completed and published to 
the whole country. 

Four months were spent by the Convention in 
settling upon a form of union that would suit all. 
Many times it seemed as if the delegates would be 
unable to agree and would have to give up the at- 
tempt and return to their homes. Most of the 
difficulty was with the smaller States, who were 
afraid that the larger States, on account of greater 
population and wealth, would have more power 
and influence than they, and that they would suffer 
in consequence. This fear was finally removed by 
providing that in the Senate every State should 
have an equal vote, and that the Senate's con- 
sent should be necessary for the passage of any 
law. The desire of the South to continue the 
slave trade was granted for twenty years on con- 
dition that after 1808 it was to cease forever. 
Other disagreements were arranged more or less 
readily by concessions on both sides and at last 
the Constitution as we now have it (without the 
Amendments) was perfected and submitted to the 
people for their approval. 

The new Constitution proposed to replace the 



64 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



former Confederation (as it had been called) with a 
government that could act and that could make its 
acts felt. The old government by Continental Con- 
gress had power only to recommend measures to 
the States. The new government was itself to have 
the power to make laws and to see that the laws 
which it made were duly carried into effect. It was 
to comprise three branches : a Congress to make 
laws, a President to enforce them, and courts of 
judges to explain them and to decide all questions 
that might arise under them. To accomplish this 
certain rights and privileges which they had 
previously possessed were taken away from the 
States and given to the new government. All 
their other powers the States were permitted to 
retain. 

Its adoption by two-thirds of the States was nec- 
essary before it could go into operation, and near- 



ly a year passed before this was secured, during 
which time it was eagerly debated throughout the 
length and breadth of the land. There was some 
opposition to it, chiefly on account of the powers 
of which it deprived the separate States, but the 
vast body of the people and nearly all of their lead- 
ers strongly favored it. New Hampshire was the 
ninth State to ratify it, and, as this completed the 
necessary number, arrangements were at once made 
to carry out its provisions by choosing a President 
and Vice-President and electing Members of Con- 
gress, and March 4, 17S9, was set as the date for 
the beginning of the new government. Before 
that day arrived Virginia and New York had also 
adopted the Constitution, so that out of the thir- 
teen States all but two took part in the first elec- 
tion, and these two were North Carolina and 
Rhode Island. 



CHAPTER XV. 

FORMATION OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT UNDER WASHINGTON. 



There was but one voice as to who should be the 
first President of the young republic and that voice 
was for George Washington, the only President of 




WASHINGTON MADE PRESIDENT. 

the United States who has ever been chosen by a 
unanimous vote. Communication between the 
States was not as rapid at that time as it is in these 
days of railroad and telegraph, so that there was 
gOme delay in learning the results of the election. 



and it was not until April 30, 1789, that the inaugu- 
ration of Washington took place, with great pomp 
and ceremony, in the city of New York. The spot 
in Wall Street where he took 
the oath of office is now 
marked by his statue. 

Washington immediately 
called to his assistance in 
conducting the government 
Tliomas Jefferson, whom he 
appointed to be Secretary of 
ate; Alexander Hamilton, 
.i hom he made Secretary of 
the Treasury; Gen. Knox, who 
became Secretary of War, and 
Edmund Randolph, as At- 
torney-General. These offi- 
cers were to be the confiden- 
tial advisers of the President 
and formed his Cabinet. Their 
positions were created by the 
new Congress, which was al- 
ready in session when Wash- 
ington began his administration. A few years 
later (1798) the Navy Department, which at first 
formed part of the War Department, was made a 
separate branch of the government and its Secre- 
tary added to the Cabinet. The Post-Officeandln- 



FORMATION OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT UNDER WASHINGTON. (,^ 




INSTALLATION OF WASHINGTON. 

terior Departments were not created until 1829 
and 1 849 respectively, and the Department of Agri- 
culture not until 1889. The most important of 
Washington's other appointments was that of John 
Jay as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 

The wisdom of Washington's choice of his ad- 
visers soon showed itself in the organization of the 
machinery of government, whose running from the 
first was as smooth as though it had long been in 
operation. Under advice from the Cabinet. Con- 
gress passed the necessary laws to give full effect to 
the Constitution, and so great a care was taicen to 
start everything in the right way that during the 
hundred years that have since passed few changes 
have been made in the methods then adopted ex- 
cepting such as were required by the growing size 
of the public business. The strong and firm hand 
of the government quickly restored order to the 
disturbed country and afforded an opportunity for 
laying the foundations of the wonderful prosperity 
that has since marked the progress of the nation. 
The invention of the cotton-gin by Whitney in 1793 



became a great source of wealth to the country, as 
it enabled one person to separate the seeds from a 
thousand pounds of cotton in the same time that it 
had previously taken him to clean six pounds. 
Unfortunately it also caused an increased demand 
for slave labor, and made it less probable that 
slavery would die out in the South, as it was already 
doing in the North. The boundary disputes had 
been partly settled shortly before Washington be- 
came President, and soon were all arranged, the 
States giving up the western lands they had claimed, 
to the new government, which thus became pos- 
sessed of a large and rich tract of territory out of 
which some of the richest and most populous States- 
have since been formed. 

One of the earliest acts of Congress was to- 
choose a capital for the United States, and a site 
was accordingly selected on the banks of the Poto- 
mac, to which it was decided that the government 
should be removed in 1800. Until then it was to. 
meet at Philadelphia. A system of taxation to pro- 
vide for the public expenses and for the payment 
of the debt incurred during the Revolution wa^ 
prepared by Hamilton and adopted, and twelve 
amendments to the Constitution were proposed by 
which the rights of the States were more expressly 
guarded than in the Constitution itself. Ten of 
these amendments were ratified by the people, and 
in 1 79 1 became part of the Constitution. 

In the meantime North Carolina (in 1789) and 
Rhode Island (in 1790) had given their assent to- 
the new form of government, and the thirteen States, 
that had struggled together through the war were 




ELI WHHNEY. 



<56 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




DANIEL BOONE. 

once more united. Other States soon began to 
ask admittance to the Union, and the first to be 
received was Vermont. She originally had been 
part of the grant made by King Charles to the Duke 
of York, but was claimed also by New Hampshire. 
While New York was disputing this claim and the 
two colonies were quarrelling over her, the "Green 
Mountain boys " (Vermont is the French for " green 
mountain ") set up a government for themselves 
which they kept up during the Revolution (in which 
they did good service) and until her entrance into 
the sisterhood of States in 1791. Kentucky fol- 
lowed the next year. She had been part of Vir- 
ginia, and her settlement was begun in 1769 by 
Daniel Boone, one of the boldest and bravest fron- 
tiersmen in American history. The Indians op- 



'^ 



posed its colonization very stubbornly, and the 
whites had to fight their way for possession foot 
by foot. She had Virginia's full consent in seeking 
and obtaining the privileges of statehood. The 
third State to be admitted during Washington's 
presidency was Tennessee. Until 1784 she was part 
of North Carolina, but in that year she revolted and 
tried to form an independent government under 
the name of Franklin. In this she failed, and in 
1790 was given by North Carolina to the United 
States. She was known as the Southwest Terri- 
tory from that date until 1796, when under her pres- 
ent name she became the sixteenth State. Both 
Kentucky and Tennessee are the Indian names of 
rivers that flow through the two States. 





MUL'Inj \i!.KS(ji\. 



A WESTERN HOMESTEAD. 

The Constitution placed the terms of President 
and Vice-President at four years, but the senti- 
ment in favor of Washington's re-election in 1792 
was as strong as it had been when he was first cho- 
sen in 1788. When his second term expired in 
1797 the people would gladly ha'>e elected him for 
a third time had he not positively refused to accept 
the office again. Before retiring to his home at 
Mount Vernon (in Virginia) he issued a Farewell 
Address, intended not only for the Americans of 
that day. but for those that came after them as 
well, in which he counselled his countrymen how 
they could best preserve the freedom they had 



THE BEGINNING OF PARTY POLITICS. 



67 



gained. This paper ranks with the Declaration of 
Independence and the Constitution of the United 
States as one of our three priceless charters of lib- 
erty. The love and veneration of the whole coun- 
try' accompanied Washington in his retirement, 
and when two years later, in his sixty-eighth year, 



he died (Dec. 14, 1799), his loss was mourned by 
the entire nation as one man. The greatest of all 
Americans, no one before his time nor since it has 
for one moment rivalled the affection which he holds 
in the hearts of the people to whom he gave inde- 
pendence. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE BEGINNING OF PARTY POLITICS. 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

The second President of the United States was not 
elected with the unanimity with which the first had 
been chosen ; on the contrary he met with consider- 
able opposition. For when the time came (1796) to 
select a successor to Washington it found the people 
divided into two political parties, each of which had 
a candidate in the field whom it was urging for the 
presidency. 

The first of these parties, called the Federalist, 
was the party which had done most to secure the 
adoption of the Constitution, which had organized 
the new government, and which carried it through 
the first eight years of its existence. Its two most 
eminent leaders were John Adams and Alexander 
Hamilton. Washington's sympathies were really 



with it, though he took no side and was strictly im- 
partial in conducting his administration. 

With a vivid recollection of the discomforts and 
evils caused by the weak government of the Conti- 
nental Congress and of the Confederation, the Fed- 
eralists held that the only safety for the people, the 
only way in which they could prosper, was in a strong 
central government with the most ample powers for 
ruling the country. Otherwise, they said, the jeal- 
ousies and dissensions among the States would for- 
ever hinder the progress of the nation and finally 
bring it to ruin. 

Opposed to the Federalists were the Republicans, 
led by Thomas Jefferson. They too looked to the 
experience of the past to guide them in the present, 
but it was in the troubles be fore the Revolution that 
they found their lesson. Appealing to the memory 




JOHN ADAMS. 



68 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



of men to recall how the 
liberties of the colonies had 
once suffered under the 
strong arm of a great pow- 
er, they besought their fel- 
low-citizens not to again 
endanger them by trans- 
ferring to this new general 
government any of the 
rights belonging to the 
States excepting those ab- 
solutely necessary to give 
effect to the Constitution. 
They feared that the new 
government might become 
so strong as to crush the 
States, and they felt that 
each State best knew the 
needs of its own people 
and could best advance 
their interests. In brief, 
the difference between the 




AARON BUKK. 



two parties was tnis : the 
Federalists would strength- 
en the general government 
at the expense, if needful, 
of the States ; while the 
Republicans would main- 
tain State rights even if it 
left the general govern- 
ment weak. It should be 
noted that the Republicans 
of that day were an entire- 
ly distinct party from the 
Republicans of the present 
time. 

Adams and Jefferson 
were the candidates of their 
parties, and after a sharp 
contest the former won, 
the latter becoming Vice- 
President. The new Presi- 
dent was well experienced 
in public affairs, having 




THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON. 



THE BEGINNING OF PARTY POLITICS. 



69 



been Vice-President during both of Washing- 
ton's terms and prior to that United States 
Minister to England, being, in fact, the first 
representative sent to Great Britain by this 
country after its independence was acknowl- 
edged. A native of Massachusetts, he was fore- 
most among her sons in defending her rights 
during the struggle which preceded the Revolu- 
tion, and was equally zealous while the war 
lasted in advocating the cause of the young re- 
public in Europe. On the conclusion of the 
conflict he was one of those appointed to draw 
up and sign in behalf of the United States the 
treaty of peace with Great Britain. 

The administration of Adams cannot be said 
to have been a remarkably successful one for the 
country, and it proved a fatal one to his party. 




ENTRANCE ^ 



ilTE HOUSE. 




THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON. 

Trouble with France, then in a very unsettled con 
dition resulting from the French Revolution, occu 
pied most of its attention and nearly led to 
war. Indeed there was some actual fighting 
on the sea, but nothing of any importance ex- 
cepting the defeat and capture of "LTnsur- 
gente " by the " Constellation " under Commo- 
dore Truxton off the West Indies (1799). Con- 
gress had made preparations for war and was 
about to declare it when a change in the 
French government by which Napoleon Bona- 
parte became its head removed the difficul- 
ties between the two nations and assured 
peace between them once more. 

It was not the threatened war with France 
which wrecked the Federalists. That was pop- 
ular. But it was the passage of two laws by 



their party in Congress during the excitement of 
the period that cost them the confidence of the 
people ; and these were the Alien and 
Sedition Laws, permitting the arrest of any 
foreigner (alien) regarded as dangerous 
and of any person who spoke evil of the 
government. These were both intended 
to strengthen the hands of the President 
and of the executive government and 
were in accord with the policy of the Fed- 
eralists, but they were bitterly opposed 
by the Republicans, who declared that no 
man ought to be imprisoned unless con- 
victed by a jury of some crime, and that 
it was one of the rights of the citizen to 
criticise the government, for without such 
criticism true freedom could not exist. 
In this a majority of the people agreed 
with them, and at the election in 1800 
Adams was defeated and Jefferson was 
chosen President in his stead. Jefferson 
did not obtain the coveted prize, how- 
ever, until after a rather peculiar contest with his 
political friend, Aaron Burr, the candidate of the 




SOUTH FRONT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. 



70 



HISTORY OF THE U XI TED STATES. 



Republicans for Vice- 
President, which 
showed a curious de- 
fect in the Constitu- 
tion. 

The presiden- 
tial electors, at that 
time, in choosing the 
President and Vice- 
President simply 
voted for two men 
without specifying on 
their ballots which of- 




PENSION OFFICE. 



curred to them that 
the electors might be 
divided into political 
parties, the members 
of each casting ballots 
all having on them the 
same two names. But 
this was what did hap- 
pen in 1 800. All the 
Republicans voted for 
both Jefferson and 
Burr, who thus had an. 
equal number of votes. 




ST.ilE, NAVV AND WAR DEl'AKTMENT BUILDING. 



fice each was to hold, , 
and the one who re- j 
ceived the most votes L 
became President and i 
he who had the next | 
highest number be- 
came Vice-President. 
By this method, the 
framers of the Con- 
stitution thought, the 
best man would be se- 
lected President and 
the next best Vice- 
President. It does 
not seem to have oc- 




TREASURY BUILDING. 



Every one knew, of 
course, which the elec- 
tors meant should be 
President and which 
Vice - President, but 
there was nothing on 
the ballots to indicate 
it. The decision be- 
tween the two there- 
upon fell to the House 
of Representatives (or 
lower branch of Con- 
gress), which, after 
some little delay and 
trouble caused by the 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF JEFFERSON. 



71 



friends of Burr, gave the presidency, as it was in- 
tended to go, to Jefferson. Before another elec- 
tion came round an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion was adopted which prevented the recurrence 
of such a difficulty by directing the electors to vote 
for the two offices separately. 

The year which witnessed the defeat of Adams 
and the expulsion from power of the Federalists saw 
also the removal of the seat of government from 
Philadelphia to the banks of the Potomac. The 
new city which the First Congress, ten years before. 



had ordered should be laid out as a permanent 
home for the federal government, and which ia 
honor of the Father of his Country had been named 
Washington, was then a city only in name; in appear- 
ance it was more like a small country village, with 
muddy and unpaved streets, mean-looking houses 
and small population. It is only within a short 
number of years that the stately buildings, which 
now render it one of the most beautiful of Ameri- 
can cities, have been erected and that it has assumed 
something of the dignity of a national capital. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JEFFERSON. 



As Governor of Virginia, Minister to France, Sec- 
retary of State under Washington and Vice-Presi- 
dent under Adams, Thomas Jefferson had already 
shown himself to be 
one of the wisest 
statesmen of his 
time before he was 
called to the high 
office of President. 
The Declaration of 
Independence was 
the work of h is 
hand, the Republi- 
ca n (soon to be 
known as the Dem- 
ocratic) party the 
fruit of his politi- 
cal teachings. Few 
men have been able 
to impress their be- 
liefs more durably 
on the histoiy and 
laws of their coun- 
try than did the 
third President of 
the United States. 

He served for two 
terms, taking office 
in 1 801 and leaving 
it in 1809. During 
these eight years the 

number of States was increased by one and the area 
of the United States was more than doubled. The 
new State was Ohio, and it had been part of that large 
western tract of land about which the older States 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



had once quarrelled and which fifteen years or more 
before they had given to the general government. 
In accepting the gift of this Northwest Territory 

(as it was called) the 
Congress of the 
Confederation had. 
by what is known 
as the Ordinance of 
1787, thrown it open 
to general settle- 
ment and had 
agreed that as the 
population in it in- 
creased five States, 
should in turn be 
formed from it and 
admitted to the Un- 
io n . The Ord i- 
nance also prohibit- 
ed slavery from for- 
ever being tolerated 
within the borders 
of this Territory, 
and it guaranteed 
to all who should 
settle in it equal 
political rights and 
perfect reli g- 
ious freedom. This 
agreement or Or- 
dinance was after- 
wards confirmed by the new government formed 
under the Constitution. 

The first settlement by Americans in Ohio was at 
Marietta in 178S, followed by another in the same 



72 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



year at Losantiville, now Cincinnati. The Indians 
at once opened war upon the immigrants and for a 
time held them in check, but in 1794 General Wayne 




ANTHONY WAYNE. 

was sent by President Washington to Ohio, and he 
defeated the Indians so completely that they gave 
up the State to the whites. Wayne was one of the 
heroes of the Revolution, where for his great daring 
he was nicknamed "Mad Anthony.'" Like Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee, Ohio took its name from that 




States which thus far had entered the Union, an 
equal number were free (Vermont and Ohio) and an 
equal number were slave (Kentucky and Tennessee). 
Ohio was admitted in 1802. In the following 
year the territory of Louisiana, which shortly before 
had been sold by Spain to France, was bought by 
the United States from Napoleon Bonaparte for 
fifteen millions of dollars. This territory embraced 
far more than the present State of that name, and 
added over a million square miles to the eight 
hundred thousand which had previously comprised 
the area of the country. The next year (1804) the 
foundation was laid for still another enlargement of 
the boundaries of the United States by an exploring 



ROBERT FULTON. 

given by the Indians to its principal river, but un- 
like those two States its soil (as provided in the 
Ordinance of 1787) was free. Of the four new 




NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

expedition under Lewis and Clarke through Oregon, 
Idaho and Washington (State), a region hitherto 
■unvisited by Americans. Great Britain afterwards 
disputed the claim which this exploration gave us 
to that part of America, and the question of owner- 
ship remained unsettled for over forty years. 

But the occurrence of this period which is of the 
most importance, by the side of which the purchase 
of Louisiana and the exploration of the Oregon 
country seem of trifling value, was the invention by 
Robert Fulton of the steamboat. Since Watt had 
invented the steam-engine forty years before, the 
effort had repeatedly been made to apply it to vessels, 
but without much success until Fulton's boat, the 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF JEFFERSON. 



73 



" Clermont," made the journey 
to Albany, driven by steam, in 
1807. Steamships were soon 
seen on the waters of all the 
inhabited parts of the country, 
and were of the greatest pos- 
sible service in developing and 
building up the districts which 
as yet had not been settled. 

When Jefferson was re-elect- 
ed President in 1804, Burr, 
who had lost much of his pop- 
ularity, was not continued as 
Vice-President. Disappointed 
at his political failure, he or- 
ganized an expedition in 1807 
to go to the southwest, and 
there to set up a government 
of his own separate from the 
United States. Before he 
could carry out his plans he 
was arrested and tried for 

treason, but as he had not actually borne arms 
against the United States he could not be con- 





STEPHEN DECATUR. 



FULTON S STEAMBOAT. 

victed. This, together with his having killed Ham- 
ilton in a duel, which he had forced upon Hamilton 
(1804), filled the measure 
of his public disgrace and 
the rest of his life was 
passed in the closest re- 
tirement. Hamil- 
ton, strong partisan as he 
■was, had been especially 
esteemed by the people, 
and his early death in 
such a manner gave the 
country a shock that soon 
put an end to the prac- 
tice of duelling. 

Fulton's invention was 
not used in sending ships 
across the Atlantic for a 
number of years after it 
had been successfully ap- 
plied to river boats. But 
our foreign commerce had 
not waited for the com- 
pletion of that invention 
to become an important 
element in our prosper- 
ity. Securing a good start 
under Washington, it had 
grown very rapidly until 
under Jefferson Ameri- 
can vessels were carrying 
a large part of the freight 



74 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



of the world. This good fortune was mainly due 
to the wars in which nearly all of Europe was at 
the time engaged, and which made the ships of a 
neutral like ourselves the safest for the transporta- 
tion of goods. 

An annoying hindrance to this commerce had for 
a long time existed in the tribute which the Bar- 
bary States on the northern shores of Africa com- 
pelled Christian nations to pay to prevent their 
ships from being captured and their sailors from 
being sold into slavery by these Mohammedan 



face of a constant fire from the enemy burned her. 
The damage done to her forts and shipping by 
frequent bombardments finally brought Tripoli to 
terms, and in 1805 she yielded and made peace 
with the United States. The e.xample thus set by 
America in resisting the Mediterranean pirates was 
followed by other nations, and in the course of a 
few years a complete stop was put to their exac- 
tions. 

But before Jefferson's presidency ended American 
commerce suffered from a much more serious inter- 



■t^ 




DECATUR BURNING THE " PHILADELPHIA." 



pirates. The United States, like the nations of 
Europe, submitted to this extortion until Tripoli 
(one of these Barbary States) in 1801 increased the 
amount of money demanded. This the United 
States refused to pay and sent her little navy to the 
Mediterranean to protect American ships. The 
" Philadelphia," one of her frigates, having stranded 
in the harbor of Tripoli, was captured (1803), but 
before the Mohammedans had any chance to make 
use of her, a boat-load of sailors, pluckily led by 
Lieutenant Decatur, ran into the harbor, and in 



ference than from the Barbary tax. This was from 
the blockades which England and France declared 
against the ports of each other and of their allies. 
Not content with these blockades, Great Britain 
went further, and in 1807 issued Orders in Council 
forbidding any American ship from entering any 
European harbor excepting her own and those of 
her friend, Sweden. Bonaparte replied with his 
Milan Decree directing that every American vessel 
which entered a British port should, if captured by 
the French, be sold. 



THE WAR OF 1812, 



75 



Between these two cross-fires our foreign trade 
was soon in a sorry pliglit. The people felt these 
acts to be intolerable, but were reluctant to go to 
war, as the weakness of the American navy offered 
but a poor chance of any redress from fighting. 
Moreover the Republicans were more desirous of 
paying oflf the debt already incurred than of burden- 
ing the country with a new one, as a war would 
do. It was therefore decided to stop all trade for a 
time with Europe in the hope that the injury thus 
inflicted upon foreign commerce would bring the 
two countries to terms. Accordingly in 1807 Con- 
gress passed the Embargo Act, prohibiting any ves- 
sel from leaving the United States for any European 
port. 



Instead of helping matters this only made them 
worse. Great Britain profited by it in getting back 
some of the carrying trade she had previously lost, 
and New England, whose foreign business was 
large, suffered severely from the paralysis caused it 
by this step. All of the country was affected more 
or less from the measure, and in 1809 it was found 
necessary to replace the Embargo Act by the Non- 
Intercourse Act, which, while still forbidding trade 
with France and England, permitted it with other 
countries. This made the situation a little better, 
but not a great deal, and the feeling became very 
bitter against France and Great Britain, particularly 
against the latter, as she had been the more hostile 
of the two. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 



Though the troubles with France and England 
had lost to the Republicans some of their popu- 
larity with the people, they yet succeeded in elect- 
ing one of their number President when Jefferson's 
second term expired in 1809. This was James Mad- 
ison, also a Virginian, and, like his predecessors, 
of public experience derived from services in his 
State legislature, the Constitutional Convention and 
Congress. He had been Secretary of State under 
Jefferson. 

The foreign difficulties under Madison did not im- 
prove; they rather grew worse. France, indeed, did 
agree to repeal her decrees if the Non-Intercourse 
Act was not applied against her, but England en- 
forced the Orders in Council with greater vigor 
than ever, and stationed war ships along the Ameri- 
can coast ready to pounce upon any vessel that 
ventured forth. What was particularly hateful to 
the Americans was the right claimed and continu- 
ally exercised by her of stopping the ships of any na- 
tion upon the high seas and taking av/ay any sailors 
whom the officer making the search chose to think 
had been born in Great Britain or Ireland. In this 
way many American citizens, both native and 
naturalized, were forced into the British navy and 
compelled to serve against their own country. Not 
content with these injuries, the British attempted 
also to inflict one of a different kind by aiding some 
Indians under Tecumseh in an attack upon the 
whites in the Northwest. General W. H. Harrison 
defeated these Indians (181 1) at Tippecanoe, and 



Tecumseh with his men afterwards entered the 
British army. 

At length the patience of the Americans became 
exhausted, and on June 18, 1812, Congress, after 
making what preparations it could, formally declared 
war against Great Britain. The government had 




JAMES MADISON. 



76 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




TECUMSEH. 



but little money at its command and these prepara- 
tions were not very formidable. The navy consisted 
of only twelve vessels, and the army was an undis- 
ciplined body of troops officered by Revolutionary 
soldiers, now too old to be really efficient, or by 
politicians ignorant of the first principles of military 



science. Among the Federalists and throughout 
New England the war was not regarded with much 
favor, but the Republicans strongly supported it, 
and they formed a decided majority of the people. 

Most of the honors in the naval part of the con- 
flict fell to the Americans. On the land they were 
more evenly divided. The naval results were a sur- 
prise to the United States as well as to England 
and to Europe generally, for hitherto the British 
had been considered almost invincible on the ocean 
even by a first-class power, which America at that 
time certainly was not. Out of the seventeen sea- 
fights which occurred during the two and a half 
years that the war lasted, the Americans won thir- 
teen and lost four, and this surely was a creditable 
showing for a nation which at the beginning of the 
contest had only a handful of war ships to oppose 
to the thousand belonging to the enemy. The dis- 
parity between the sea forces of the two countries, 
however, did not long continue to be quite as great 
as this, for the United States soon verj' materially 
increased its navy by the purchase and building of 
more vessels. 

The reason for this was very largely in the care- 
lessness of the English commanders and in the vigi- 
lance of their opponents. The very success which 
Great Britain had so uniformly met with hitherto 




THE "CHESAPEAKE" AND THE "SHANNON. 



THE WAR OF 1812. 



77 



on the ocean made her now more lax, especially 
when she had a nation so much her inferior in 
power as the United States to contend against. The 
Americans, on the contrary', were all the more alert 
because they felt their weakness. Whatever they 
were to accomplish must be done by discipline and 
skill, for of strength they had but little as compared 
with that against them. 

The first of these sea-victories was the capture of 
the "Alert " by the " Essex "commanded by Captain 
Porter, followed in a few days by the capture of 
the " Guerriere " by the " Constitution " under Cap- 
tain Hull. This was in August, 1812. In the fol- 
lowing October the " Frolic " was taken by the 
•' Wasp " (Captain Jacob Jones), and the " Macedo- 
nian " by the "United States" (Captain Decatur). 
Still a fifth conquest was made the same year (De- 
cember) — that of the " Java " by the " Constitution," 
now under command of Captain William Bain- 
bridge. Against these five victories was one loss, 
the " Wasp," which was so badly injured in its fight 
with the " Frolic" that it fell an easy prey to the 
" Poictiers," a larger British vessel, which overtook 
and captured it with its prize a few hours afterwards. 

During 1S13 the American naxy was not quite as 
successful as it had been in the preceding year, its 
defeats equalling in number its victories. Of its 
losses, that of the " Chesapeake " (June) was the most 
serious. The "Chesapeake" was commanded by 
Captain Lawrence, who earlier in the season (Febru- 
arj'). while in command of the " Hornet," had gained 
one of the two victories of the year by defeating and 
capturing the " Peacock." For this service he had 
been transferred to the larger ship, the " Chesa- 
peake," but had scarcely assumed charge before he 
was engaged in battle with the "Shannon." Law- 
rence fought gallantly, but in this case British dis- 
cipline was better than American and prevailed. 
Lawrence lost his life before the struggle was de- 
cided, so that he was spared the pain of defeat. His 
last words — "Don't give up the ship" — became for 
the rest of the war the battle-cry of the American 
sailor. 

Of the other ocean reverses the capture of the 
"Essex" (March, 1814) was the most important. 
She had been cruising in the Pacific for about a year 
when she was attacked, while crippled from an ac- 
cident, by the " Phoebe " and " Cherub," and after 
the fiercest fight of the war, during which more than 
half of her men were killed, she was forced to sur- 
render. Another loss to the Americans occurred 
in the following January when the " President " was 
taken by a British fleet near Long Island. 

But against these disasters was a long series of 



splendid successes : the " Peacock " over the " Eper- 
vier" (April, 1814); the "Wasp" over the "Rein- 
deer" (June, 1814); the "Wasp" over the "Avon" 
(Sept., 1814) ; the "Constitution " over the "Cyane" 
and the " Levant" (Feb., 181 5) ; the " Hornet" over 
the " Penguin " (March, 181 5) ; and the " Peacock" 
over the "Nautilus" (June, 181 5). The three capt- 
ures (all under different commanders) made by the 
" Constitution " earned her the reputation of a lucky 
ship with her officers and men and they gave her 
the name of " Old Ironsides," by which she was 
known as long as she was kept afloat. 




OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 

Not only on the ocean was the United States 
successful. Two of its greatest naval victories were 
won on the lakes. Captain Perry had command 
on Lake Erie, his fleet consisting of five small ves- 
sels and two larger ones, the " Lawrence " and the 
" Niagara," the former named after the hero of the 
"Chesapeake." whose dying words were inscribed 
on the flag flying from her mast. In September, 
181 3, Perry met the British fleet and engaged it in 
battle. He was in the " Lawrence," and against her 
the English at first directed the whole of their fire 
until she became hopelessly disabled. Quickly shift- 
ing himself to the "Niagara," Perry turned at once 



78 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



upon the British, exhausted from their attack on the 
" Lawrence," and breaking through their Hne poured 
upon them so heavy a fire in all directions that in 
a quarter of an hour the entire fleet surrendered. 
Perry used few words to announce his victory: 
" We have met the enemy and they are ours : two 
ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." 

The victor^' on Lake Erie gave the American 
army an opportunity to invade Canada. Exactly 
a year later (Sept. ii, 1814) a similar success on 




\ 



I 



WIN FIELD SCOTT. 

Lake Champlain prevented an English army from 
invading New York by way of Canada. Commo- 
dore Macdonough was at the head of the Ameri- 
can fleet on this lake which opposed the progress 
of the British, and the result of the battle was the 
capture of the four larger vessels of the enemy, the 
flight of the smaller ones and the retreat of the 
army. In neither of these lake engagements did 
the Americans have quite as many guns or men as 
the English. Indeed there were few naval battles 



in the war in which whatever advantage there 
might be in these respects did not rest with the 
British. 

Turning now to land operations the picture is 
not as flattering to American pride, for there we 
did not have it nearly so much our own way as on 
the water. At the outset of the war several attempts 
were made to invade Canada, but the)' only resulted 
in the loss of Detroit (Aug., i8i2),then the largest 
town on the northwestern frontier. General W. 
H. Harrison was then 
given command of the 
West and he tried many 
times to retake Detroit, 
but his troops at first 
were too raw to accom- 
plish much. It was while 
he was striving to drive 
the enemy from Michigan 
that the battle of the 
Raisin River occurred 
(Jan., 1813), long remem- 
bered for the bloody mas- 
sacre of the wounded by 
the Indians which fol- 
lowed it and which was 
inhumanly permitted by 
the British commander, 
General Proctor. The 
victory of Perr)' finally 
afforded Harrison 
the chance to enter Cana- 
da, where he defeated 
Proctor at the Thames 
River (Oct., 1813), killed 
Tecumseh and put an end 
to the war in that region. 
Detroit and other captur- 
■^^ ed forts were easily retak- 
en and Michigan passed 
back again to American 
control. 

In northern New York 
there was the same ill- 
success for the first year or two that there was in 
the West, and the same improvement in the latter 
part of the war. The most important engagement 
in this section of the country was the battle of 
Lundy's Lane (July, 1S14), fought on the Canadian 
side of the Niagara River, which resulted in driv- 
ing the British from the field, but also in weakening 
the Americans so seriously that they thought it 
prudent to themselves retire as well the next day. 
The improved discipline in this northern army was 



THE WAR OF 1812. 



79 



principally due to the efforts of Winfield Scott, one 
of the younger officers lately put in command, and 
who, with Ripley and Jacob Brown, led our soldiers 
in the battle of Lundy's Lane. 

In the East the American cause suffered even 
more than in the West and North. The British 
vessels stationed along the Atlantic coast not only 
blockaded all the ports but they bombarded many 
towns and sent parties on shore who did much in- 
jury to public and private property. Lewes, Havre 



This work of destruction accomplished, the British 
turned to Baltimore, but here some preparations for 
defence had been made and the attack was deter- 
minedly resisted and finally repulsed. 

The Indians on the frontier, who were generally 
hostile to the settlers, nearly everywhere seized the 
occasion of the outbreak of the war to attack the 
whites. Of these attacks by far the most serious was 
that made by the Creeks, the principal tribe in the 
Southwest Territory consisting of tlie present States 



•^——~ - . : -^y,, -" " 




3 




■^ 






PACKENHAM LEADING THE ATTACK ON NEW ORLEANS. 



de Grace, Hampton and Stonington were among 
the places thus attacked, and New York only es- 
caped through British fear of the torpedoes in the 
harbor. But the greatest disaster in this region, in 
fact of the war, was the burning of Washington. 
That city had been left entirely unprotected, and 
when an English army of five thousand men landed 
at Chesapeake Bay and marched to the seat of gov- 
ernment (Aug., 1 814) there were no soldiers there 
to defend it and the city was pillaged at will. 



of Alabama and Mississippi. In August, 1813, they 
surprised Fort Mims (near Mobile) and put to death 
nearly all of the five hundred men, women anc 
children who had taken refuge there. 

Such an act called for immediate vengeance. 
The Tennessee militia hastened to the field and 
under command of Andrew Jackson pursued the 
Indians, and at the battle of Tohopeka, on the Tal- 
lapoosa River (Alabama), overwhelmingly routed 
them, killing eight hundred of their number and 



8o 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



compelling them to give up most of their land 
to the Americans (March, 1814). From this time 
the Creeks, who before had been a power in the 
Southwest, gave the settlers but little trouble. 

The battle of Tohopeka, or Horseshoe Bend (as it 
is also called), made Jackson's reputation for leader- 
ship and the command in the Southwest was given 
to him. It was known that an army was on its way 
from England to attack New Orleans, and Jackson 
at once made the most energetic arrangements for 
its defence. Entrenchments were thrown up on 
marshy land a few miles below New Orleans and 
expert riflemen stationed behind them to prevent 
the enemy on landing from reaching the city. 

In December, 1814, the British arrived. They 
comprised twelve thousand veteran troops led by 
Sir Edward Packenham, and opposed to them were 
six thousand Americans as inexperienced in war as 
were the minute-men at Lexington and Concord. 
The first week or two was spent in minor skir- 
mishes, and then, on January 8, 1815, Packenham 
threw his entire army against Jackson's works. 
Profiting by the example of their fathers at Bunker 
Hill, the Americans held back their fire until the 
English were close at hand and then poured it up- 
on them with such deadly effect that the whole line 
of the enemy broke and fled, leaving their command- 
er and over twenty-five hundred of their number 
dead behind them, while of Jackson's men but seven 
were killed and thirteen wounded. 

The battle of New Orleans was a more gratifying 
close to the war than Hull's surrender of Detroit 
had been a beginning of it. Before this last bat- 
tle was fought peace had been concluded by Ameri- 
can and British representatives at the Belgian city 
of Ghent (Dec. 24, 1814), but the news of it did not 
reach this country until after Jackson's victory. It 
is curious that the very things which caused the 



two countries to begin the war were neither of them 
mentioned in the treaty of peace. The reason for 
their omission is that they had ceased to be of impor- 
tance. England and France were no longer at war 
and hence there was no occasion for the former to en- 
force her Orders in Council. As to the British claim 
to the right of search and imprisonment of seamen, 
the United States no longer feared she would attempt 
to exercise it, as the American na\T had shown itself 
fully able to protect our commerce on the ocean. 

Tidings of peace were never more gladly received 
than was the news of the treaty of Ghent. Though 
it left matters very much as they were before, it 
was ever)T,vhere hailed with delight and celebrated 
by the ringing of bells and firing of cannon. For by 
the close of the war business of all kinds was nearly 
at a standstill. The people had become too poor to 
buy anything but the barest necessities of life, and 
sometimes they could hardly buy those. Money 
was scarce, creditors could not collect their debts, 
farmers could not sell their crops. New England 
suffered especially from the stoppage put to her 
commerce by the war. From the first she had op- 
posed it, and the many land reverses met with by the 
Americans during its progress did not tend to de- 
crease her opposition. This opposition grew still 
stronger after the burning of Washington, and in 
the latter part of 1814 a secret convention of New 
England Federalists was held at Hartford, to take 
steps, the Republicans said, to withdraw from the 
Union. There is no proof to support this charge, 
for all the convention did was to draw up a report 
on the condition of the country, suggest that New 
England be allowed to defend herself against the 
English without waiting for Federal aid and propose 
some changes in the Constitution. Peace so quick- 
ly followed the meetings of the convention that 
nothing came of its recommendations. 




BRIDGE OVER THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT ST. LOUIS. 



THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING AND THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 



8i 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING AND THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 



The close of the war opened again the ocean 
roads for merchant ships to Europe, and with the 
resumption of foreign commerce came a revival of 
business throughout the land. The country was 
growing. The war itself had stimulated the settle- 
ment of western New York, which previously had 
been a rarely visited wilderness. Steamboats were 
carrying emigrants to the Westand Jackson's crush- 
ing defeat of the Creeks had removed all fear of 
the Indians in Alabama and Mississippi and thrown 
them open to white colonists. New States were 
also coming into the Union. In 1812 Louisiana 
was separated from the rest of the territory bought 
from France and given statehood, followed four 
years later (18 1 6) by Indiana, formed, as Ohio had 
been, from the Northwest Territory. Slavery was 
already in existence in Louisiana before it became 
a State, while the Ordinance of 1787 insured free soil 
in Indiana and the rest of the Northwest Territory, 
The admission of these two States therefore did 
not affect the balance of power between the slave- 
holding and non-slaveholding States. 

The opposition of the Federalists to the war and 
particularl)' their calling the Hartford Convention 
destroyed what little influence they still had. They 
had been unable to prevent the re-election of Mad- 
ison in 181 2; they were able to do yet less in 181 6 
when Madison's successor was to be chosen. Out 
of two hundred and twenty-one electoral votes 
cast, the Republican candidate, Monroe, received all 
but thirty-four. This ended the Federalist party. 
It now completely disappeared from politics and at 
no future election did it make even a nomination 
for office. After a few years a new party was formed, 
called the Whig, and this was joined by many of 
those who were formerly Federalists. But in the 
meantime there was little or no organized opposi- 
tion to the Republicans, who in consequence were 
able to conduct the government pretty much as 
they liked. 

James Monroe, the fifth President of the United 
States and the fourth furnished by Virginia, had 
had perhaps even a wider experience in public 
office than any of the Presidents before him. He 
had served as captain in the Revolution, as mem- 
ber of the Continental Congress, and (on the adop- 
tion of the Constitution) as United States Senator. 
Then he became Minister in succession to France, 



England and Spain, and afterwards Governor of 
Virginia and (under Madison) Secretary of State. 
He held the presidency for eight years, only one 
electoral vote being cast against him at the end 
of his first term in 1820, and that was thrown 
simply that no one should share with Washington 
the honor of a unanimous election. 
The administration of Monroe was the "era of 




JAMES MONROE. 

good feeling." Parties and politics for the time 
were over. The country was at peace and was pros- 
perous, and its increasing population was forming 
settlements in every direction and rapidly developing 
its marvellous resources. The three millions of peo- 
ple contained in the United States at the end of 
the War for Independence had by 1820 become over 
nine and a half millions, and these figures were con- 
stantly enlarging by a vast emigration from Europe 
which spread itself over the country, clearing away 
forests, building villages and towns, and turning the. 
wilderness into a garden. 



82 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Railroads were as yet unknown. The only means 
of travel were by boat or carriage. The importance 
therefore of good roads and waterways was mani- 
fest. Recognizing this. Congress and the various 




DE WIIT CLINTON. 

States, in order to aid in the development of the 
country, began at this time to build a better system 
of roads and canals than any that had hitherto ex- 
isted. Of these by far 
the most extensive and 
important was the Erie 
Canal, constructed by 
the State of New York, 
and which, by connect- 
ing Lake Erie at Buffalo 
■with the Hudson at Al- 
bany, afforded a new 
outlet from the Great 
Lakes to the Atlantic 
and made travel and 
trafficbetween New York 
and what was then the 
extreme West immense- 
ly easier. Eight years 
were occupied in its 
building (i8i 7-1 825), and 
the credit of the enter- 
prise is due to the un- 
tiring efforts of Govern- 
or De Witt Clinton, but 
for whom it never would 
have been begun or 
pushed to a conclusion. 

It is undoubtedly to the Erie Canal that New York 
owes the commercial supremacy she has so long 
■enjoyed and which has made her to-day the largest 
and wealthiest of the States. 



Once before had the United States added to its 
territory. Now it did so again by buying (1S21), 
for five millions of dollars, Florida from Spain, to 
whom it had been given by England at the close of 
the Revolution. This purchase was rendered nec- 
essary, or at least desirable, by the trouble which 
both the Indians and Spanish settlers in Florida 
continually gave to the neighboring Americans in 
Georgia and Alabama, and which could not readily 
be checked until our government obtained control 
of the territory. 

Not only was the area of the United States en- 
larged during this period, but the number of States 
was increased and five more stars added to the 
American flag. The first to be admitted was Mis- 
sissippi (18 1 7), originally claimed by Georgia, but 
given up in 1802 to Congress. Next followed Illi- 
nois (in 1818), the third State taken from the North- 
west Territory. Alabama, which like Mississippi had 
once belonged to Georgia, came in 1S19, and a year 
later Maine was divided off from Massachusetts and 
made a State by itself. The last of these five was 
Missouri, admitted in 1821. The names of all these 
States, excepting Maine, were taken from the In- 
dians, Illinois being the name of a tribe and the 




THE FIRST BOAT THROUGH THE CANAL TO THE SEA. 



Others the names of rivers. Maine received its 
name from the French possessions of Henrietta 
Maria, wife of Charles the First, during whose reign 
it was first settled. 



THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING AND THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 83 



Missouri was part of the Territory of Missouri, 
the name given to the rest of the French purchase 
when Louisiana was cut off from it and made a 
State in 1812. Its admission raised the slavery 
question and marks the beginning of the anti-slave- 
ry struggle, which was not brought to a final close 
till nearly half a century later. Though negroes 
were at first held in bondage in all of the original 
thirteen colonies, they were never as numerous in 
the North as in the South, and the idea of slavery 
was never as well liked in the one region as in the 
other. Before the end of the last cen- 
tury it had nearly died out in the North 
and public sentiment there was becom- 
ing decidedly averse to it, while in the 
South, on the other hand, it was con- 
stantly increasing as negro labor became 
more profitable in the production of cot- 
ton, rice and tobacco. But however 
much the North might be opposed to the 
principle of slavery there was no thought 
at first of attempting to abolish it in the 
Southern States where it already existed. 
There was, however, a strong feeling 
against its extension to new parts of the 
country', and it was this feeling which 
had secured (by the Ordinance of 1787) 
its prohibition from the Northwest Ter- 
ritory. 

Of the ten States admitted into the 
Union after the adoption of the Consti- 
tution, and up to the time that Missouri 
came in, five (Vermont, Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois and Maine) had been free and 
live (Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, 
Alabama and Mississippi) slave. In the 
latter five slavery had been introduced 
before they passed under control of the 
national government either by gift from the older 
States or (as in the case of Louisiana) by purchase. 
There was therefore but little objection to their 
admission as slave States. The case of Missouri 
■was thought to be different. In position she was 
nearer to the Northern States than to the South- 
ern ones, and her interests, the North claimed, 
would lie more with the former than with the latter, 
and like them, therefore, she should be free. She 
was west of the Mississippi, and the North held 
that the founders of the government had never in- 
tended that slavery should extend beyond that 
river. When bought from France there had been 
scarcely any settlement within her boundaries, so 
that her soil was then virtually free, and only as a 
free State were the opponents of slavery willing 



she should enter the Union. But during her terri- 
torial days many slave-owners had mov'ed into Mis- 
souri and they had become a majority of her popu- 
lation. They naturally wished to retain their slave 
property, and in this they were supported by the 
other Southern States, who argued that the Consti- 
tution had left the matter to the States, and that if 
Missouri chose to permit slavery she was entitled to 
do so. Congress debated the question long and 
earnestly, public feeling in both sections of the 
country becoming thoroughly roused and excited. 




ERIS CANAL, NEW YORK STATE. 

Finally, after a discussion which lasted two years, 
the dispute was arranged by admitting Missouri as 
a slave State on condition that all other territories 
and future States north of her southern boundary 
should be free. It was hoped at the time that this 
" Missouri Compromise," as it was called, would 
end forever the slavery contest, but as will be seen 
later on it only postponed the day of settlement. 

Monroe's administration saw also the opening of 
another great public question which, unlike that of 
slavery, has not yet reached a final settlement. 
This was the tariff question. Many manufactories 
had been established in this country since the Rev- 
olutionary times, but their owners found it difficult 
to compete with foreign (especially English) goods, 
which were offered for sale in the American mar- 



84 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



kets more cheaply than they could be profitably 
made for here. At the request of American manu- 
facturers, Congress in 1824 increased the taxes (or 
duties) on goods imported into this country so as 




COTTON PLANT. 

to raise the price at which they must be sold, and 
thus protect home wares. This protective policy 
was (and is) opposed by those who believe that the 
government ought not to do anything to restrict 
trade, that ever)' one should have the right to buy 
where he can buy at the least cost, and that a high 



tariff compels the many to support the few. From 
that time to the present this question of free trade 
or protection has often come up for discussion and 
action, and the people have sometimes inclined to 
one side and sometimes to the 
other, but they have never yet 
spoken so decisively for either 
policy as to cause its opponents 
to abandon the contest. 

The ■' Monroe Doctrine," which 
has ever since been our great 
guide in determining the rela- 
tions we should hold with foreign 
countries, also originated in this 
period. It was set forth in a 
message sent to Congress by the 
President in the year preceding 
the adoption of the protective 
tariff, and declared that while the 
United States would take no part 
in any quarrel or war between the 
nations of Europe or disturb any 
colony already established in this 
country, we would not permit any 
European interference with the 
affairs of this continent, any at- 
tempt to plant new colonies or to 
subject any independent state to 
the condition of a colon}' in either 
North or South America. The 
message was called forth by a sus- 
picion that some of the powers of 
Europe were seeking to gain con- 
trol over the South American 
states which had recently freed 
themselves from Spanish rule and 
become independent. 

In the closing year of Monroe's 
term of office La Fayette on in- 
vitation from the government vis- 
ited once more the United States. 
He was received everywhere with 
the honors he so richly merited from the great 
services he had rendered the countrj' fifty years 
before, and when his year's stay was over he re- 
turned to France in a frigate which bore his name 
and with a present from Congress of two hundred 
thousand dollars and a township of public land. 



THE '' AMERICAN SYSTEM" AND NULLIFICATION. 



85 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE " AMERICAN SYSTEM " AND NULLIFICATION. 



There were four candidates for the presidency in 
1824, all of them Republicans (Democrats), for the 
Federalist party had ceased to exist and the Whig 
party had not yet come into being. Of these An- 
drew Jackson received the most electoral votes, but 
not a majority, and so for a second time the House 
of Representatives was called upon to choose the 
President. There the friends of two of the other 
candidates combined against Jackson and secured 
the election of John.Quincy Adams. 

John Quincy Adams was the first President who 
had had no part in either the Revolutionary War or in 
framing the Constitution. He had come into pub- 
lic life after the Constitution was adopted and the 
new government organized under it. A son of 
John Adams, he had first served his country as 
Minister to the Netherlands and to Prussia, then as 
United States Senator, then as Minister to Russia 
and then as Monroe's Secretary of State. It is a 
curious fact that four of the first six Presidents 
should have been Secretaries of State under some 
of their predecessors, the last three in fact going 
direct from that office to the executive chair. 

The elder Adams was still living when his son 
became President, but the latter had been in office 
only a little more than a year when his father died. 
By a remarkable coincidence both he and Jefferson 
died on the same day, and that day (July 4, 1S26) 
was the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the 
Declaration of Independence, of which one had 
been the author and the other the principal sup- 
porter. The two had been life-long friends except 
for a brief interval at the beginning of Jefferson's 
presidency, and each died in the belief that the 
other was still living. 

The administration of Monroe had witnessed the 
introduction into the United States from Great 
Britain of lighting by gas (1822); that of the younger 
Adams saw another invention brought from over the 
Atlantic which proved of infinitely more value and 
which rivalled in importance even Fulton's steam- 
boat. This was the railroad, first tried in England 
in 1825, and in America, at Quincy (Mass.) and at 
Albany, in 1827. In the course of a few years rail- 
roads were built through most of the settled parts 
of the United States and proved a most powerful 
help in enabling us to make use of the natural wealth 
of the country and in enlarging its settlements. 



Without question, the locomotive steam-engine has 
done more for the prosperity of America than any 
other one thing that can be named. It has hastened 
by at least a quarter of a century the development 
of the vast region northwest of the Mississippi. It 
has made it possible for the people in every section 
of the country to obtain quickly and cheaply the 
products of every other section. More than all, it 
has so encouraged the inhabitants of one State to 
travel and mingle among those of other States that 




JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

it has knit the whole people into one nation as 
probably nothing else would have done. 

Though the benefits which were to be derived 
from the railroad were not felt immediately, the 
country was in a very prosperous condition, and this 
the protectionists claimed was the effect of the tarifl[ 
of 1824. They therefore became urgent to have the 
duties made still higher, on the ground that such a 
course would result in even greater wealth to the 
country. This policy was advocated by Adams and 



86 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



his Secretary of State, Henry 
Clay, and they induced Congress 
in 1828 to pass a bill raising the 
imposts (or taxes on imports). 
The revenues which came from 
these increased duties were de- 
voted to continuing the improve- 
ments of roads, canals and har- 
bors previously begun under 
Monroe. 

This " American system," as 
the combination of a protective 
tariff with internal improvements 
came to be called, proved the 
ruin of Adams as the " Alien 
and Sedition Laws " had of his 
father before him. It broke up 
the Republican party into two 
sections, one believing as did 
Adams and Clay, and the other 
opposed to their policy. In the 
latter division, which took the 
name of the Democratic party, 
was found nearly the entire 
South, which having no manu- 
factories, favored free trade or 
at least a low tariff. The other 
division of the Republicans 
(which soon took the name of 
Whigs) obtained its support at 
the North, especially in New 



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THE FIRST STEA.M-ENGINE. 



HENRY CLAY. 

England, where nearly all of the manu- 
facturing of the country v.as done and 
which accordingly desired the protec- 
tion afforded by a high tariff. The 
North and South thus became divided 
to some extent on another subject be- 
sides that of the right or wrong of 
slavery. 

Other things as well as the tariff and 
internal improvements entered into 
the party feeling of the time and helped 
to destroy the political quiet which had 
so long rested upon the nation. Adams 
personally was not a popular man with 
the people, though he was respected 
and even feared. Trained in politics 
by his father, he was felt to belong to 
the old school of statesmen and not 
to be in sufficient sympathy with the 
changed conditions of the country to 
properly be its head. But the great 
thing against him, that which chiefly 
led to his overthrow, was the sentiment 



THE "AMERICAN SYSTEM" AND NULLIFICATION. 



87 



that the presidency had not been fairly awarded to 
him in 1S24, and that the man who had then re- 
ceived the most votes should have been President. 
This it was that, when he stood for re-election in 
1828, caused him to be hopelessly defeated by the 
same candidate who had outvoted him four years 
before, but whom the House of Representatives had 
then set aside in his favor. General Andrew Jackson. 

Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, " Old 
Hickory " as his party associates loved to call him, 
was not without political experience when he en- 
tered upon the presidency, though his experience 
had not been as extensive as that of most 
of his predecessors. He had been a mem- 
ber of both branches of Congress as well 
as of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the 
State of his adoption though not of his 
birth. It was as a soldier, however, in the 
second war with England that he had won 
his distinction and shown his fitness as a 
natural leader of men. Honest, fearless, 
bold and energetic, he allowed no obstacle 
to prevent his doing what he thought was 
right or necessary. 

The administration of Jackson was a 
stormy one. There were foreign difficul- 
ties with France. There were wars with 
the Indians. There was trouble with the 
States. There were disagreements with 
Congress. From the beginning to the end 
of his eight years' presidency Jackson was 
engaged almost constantly in some contest, 
small or great, and from every one of them 
he came out the victor. 

His first attack was upon office-holders 
whose politics differed from his own, all of 
whom he swept from office as no Presi- 
dent before him had done, and thus estab- 
lished a custom which has been followed 
almost without exception by each of his successors. 
Then he turned against the Bank of the United 
States, in which, since the early days of the Re- 
public, the public money had been kept, vetoed 
the bill passed by Congress to renew its charter 
(1832), and forcibly removed the government de- 
posits to State banks. Opposed to the " American 
system" of high tariff and internal improvements, 
he showed his disapproval by refusing to sign any 
of the many harbor, canal and river bills sent him 
by Congress. 

These acts were all directed against his political 
opponents. But he was not afraid to proceed 
against his political friends, as well, when his views 
differed from theirs. He himself believed in a 



low tariff, but while a high tariff was the law he 
thought it should be obeyed. South Carolina, like 
all of the South, was opposed to protective duties. 
But her opposition took a more violent form than 
did that of other States. When Congress in 1832 
again raised the tariff. South Carolina refused to 
obey the new law, declared it null (of no effect), 
forbade her citizens to pay the duties, and threat- 
ened to secede if the national government should try 
to enforce it. Such a defiance of federal authority 
Jackson was not the kind of man to tolerate. He 
at once sent a naval force to Charleston harbor to 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



collect duties from every incoming ship. He or- 
dered troops to the interior of the State to keep 
order. He issued a proclamation notifying the peo- 
ple that the law would be carried out, whatever hap- 
pened, and that if they resisted it would be at the 
peril of their lives. This brought South Carolina 
to her senses. She had not been prepared for 
quite so much energy. She determined to wait a 
little before giving effect to her " nullification," and 
see what Congress would do. What Congress did 
was to adopt a "compromise tariff" (1833), pro- 
viding for a steady annual decrease in the duties, 
and so quieted the troubled waters. 

He was equally decisive in foreign matters. 
Americans had long been seeking payment for the 



88 



HISTORY OF THE UN'ITED STATES. 



injuries done their commerce by France in the ear- 
ly years of the century, but without success, until 
Jackson threatened to seize enough French ships 
to make good the old loss and directed our Minister 
at Paris to demand his passports and come home 
(1834). This was sufficient. The five millions of 
dollars claimed by us were paid and harmony be- 
tween the two nations restored. 

The first of the Indian troubles was an outbreak 
on the part of the Sac and Fox tribes in Wisconsin 
(1832), led by Black Hawk, a chief whose name has 
been given to the war, and which resulted after a 
few months' contest in the removal of the Indians 
beyond the Mississippi. A more serious disturbance 
occurred a few years later in Florida with the Sem- 
inoles. It originated in the shelter they gave negro 
slaves who had run away and whom they refused 
to give up to their masters. This made the whites 
very desirous of getting rid of such neighbors. The 
■war lasted seven years (1835-1842) and ended as the 




BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Black Hawk one had done, in driving the Indians 
west of the Mississippi. A third Indian tribe also 
had to give up its lands during this period and cross 
the great river. This was the Cherokee tribe, which 
the government after some little difficulty induced 
to leave Alabama and Georgia in 1836. 

But the tumults, quarrels and excitements of the 
time did not interrupt the growth or prosperity of 
the country, more marked perhaps during these 
years than at any other period in our history. Even 
a great fire in New York, which destroyed twenty 
million dollars' worth of property, did not affect 
the nation at large, and only briefly checked the in- 



crease of wealth in that city. In the very year ot 
that fire (1835) the national debt was entirely paid 
off and Congress found itself with an income (from 
the tariff) larger than was needed for the expenses of 
the government, and it could discover no better 
means of using the surplus than by dividing it 
among the States. But the States felt as pros- 
perous as the federal government and were spend- 
ing money freely in building railroads and canals, 
improving highvvays and establishing more and 
better schools. Private wealth kept pace with pub- 
lic prosperity. The number of banks rapidly in- 
creased ; more money was put into manufactories ; 
and the sales of government lands rose from one 
million dollars a year to twenty-five millions. It 
was at this time that friction matches came into 
use, and that coal took the place of w-ood. The 
reaping-machine was invented in 1834 and the re- 
volving pistol in 1835. Steamboats, which as yet 
had only been used on the rivers and lakes, be- 
gan to cross the ocean. Imprisonment for debt 
began to be abolished, and the abolition of slave- 
ry began to be advocated. The temperance move- 
ment as an organized effort to restrict the use of 
alcoholic drink also first came to the front at this 
period. 

The admission of Arkansas and Michigan into 
the Union during the last years of Jackson's term 
increased the number of States to twenty-six, thus 
just doubling the original thirteen. Arkansas had 
been part of the French purchase and had been in- 
cluded successively in the territories of Louisiana 
and Missouri until the latter in 1819 had formed a 
State government, when she was made a territory by 
herself under her present name (that of a former tribe 
of Indians). She entered the Union in 1836, and as 
she was south of Missouri she came in as a slave 
State. Michigan followed a year later as the fourth 
(free) State taken from the Northwest Territory, 
though she had had a separate territorial govern- 
ment of her own since 1805. Her name was taken 
from that given by the Indians to the body of water 
separating her from Wisconsin and which means 
" great lake." The first settlement in each of these 
two new States was made by the French, at Arkan- 
sas Post (1685) and at Detroit (1701) respectively, 
and for a long time these were about the only 
settlements in the two territories. 



VAN BUREN, HARRISON. TYLER. 



89 



CHAPTER XXI. 



VAN BUREN, HARRISON, TYLER. 




MARTIN VAN BUREN. 

After serving for two terms Jackson in 1837 was 
succeeded in the presidency by Martin Van Buren. 
The Whigs had become discouraged by their defeats 
in 1828 and in 1832 (when Jaclcson was re-elected) 
and made no nomination against Van Buren, scat- 
tering their vote among a number of candidates. 
Their leader was Henry Clay, author of the " Mis- 
souri Compromise " and the great advocate of pro- 
tective duties and internal improvements, who had 
twice before been a presidential candidate and each 
time beaten (1824 and 1832). Besides serving as 
Secretary of State under John Ouincy Adams, Clay 
was for many years a member of the House of Rep- 
resentatives and afterwards United States Senator 
from Kentucky. 

A native 'of New York, Van Buren had held a 
number of State offices (among them the governor- 
ship), had been a United States Senator and then 
in turn Secretary of State and Vice-President 
{under Jackson) before rising to the highest posi- 
tion in the gift of the nation. Both of these last 
(and highest) two offices he owed to the friend- 
ship of Jackson, who procured his nomination 



from the Democrats in gratitude for his loyal 
support. 

But Van Buren was able to retain the presidency 
only one term, thus making the third President in 
the first fifty years of the Constitution who failed of 
re-election. His defeat was caused by the financial 
panic which swept over the country the year he 
took office, and of which the effect was felt during 
most of his term. The prosperity of the previous 
fifteen or twenty years had led people to extend 
their business beyond the needs of the country, 
growing as that was. To supply the money re- 
quired by this expansion of trade the banks had 
issued notes far in excess of their ability to redeem 
them with gold and silver. Indeed, many of these 
banks had never intended to redeem them when 
they issued them. The failure of the banks to make 
good their notes when presented brought on the 
panic, which involved thousands in ruin. The gov- 
ernment itself for a time was embarrassed, as the 
State banks in which its funds were deposited were 
obliged to suspend with the rest. It was on this 
account that Congress, at the suggestion of Van 




WILLIAM H. HARRISON. 



90 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




JOHN TYLER. 

Buren, soon after established subtreasuries in vari- 
ous parts of the country, where the public money 
has since been kept safe from the danger of bank 
failure. 

Though Van Buren can hardly be held respon- 
sible for the panic, the people did lay it partly at 
his door, and thought that they might find relief 
from the depression in business and general distress 
by a change in the government. Accordingly in 
1840 the Whigs, for the first time since their party 
was formed, and after One of the most exciting cam- 
paigns in our political history, famous for the size 
of its meetings, the length of its processions and 
the quantity of " hard cider " drunk, succeeded at 
last in electing one of their number President, 
General William H. Harrison. 

Harrison, like Jackson, had gained his popularity 
through his services in the War of 181 2, but, also 
like Jackson, had held public office before his eleva- 
tion to the presidency. By birth a Virginian, he re- 
moved to the Northwest Territory in early manhood 
and became one of the first territorial governors of 
Indiana and afterwards its representative in turn in 
each branch of Congress, and then was sent abroad 
as United States Minister to Colombia. 



The triumph of the Whigs was short-lived. 
Scarcely a month after taking the oath Harrison 
died (April 6, 1841), and in his successor, chosen 
though he was by their votes, the Whigs found any- 
thing but a friend to their cause. 

John Tyler had been elected Vice-President on 
the same ticket with Harrison, and so on the death 
of the latter became President. This was in ac- 
cordance with the provisions of the Constitution, 
which in fact had only created the vice-presidential 
office in order to provide for an immediate succes- 
sor to the presidency should that position become 
vacant by death, resignation or removal. No oc- 
casion having before this arisen for the Vice-Presi- 
dent to assume the higher office, the position had 
come to be little thought of. Its duties were tri- 
fling, it exerted slight influence, and in making nom- 
inations to fill it parties looked with much more 
care at the votes to be obtained than at the special 
fitness of the candidate. It was this which had in- 
duced the Whigs to associate Tyler with Harrison 
at the recent election, and which had now made 
the former President. For though Tyler called 
himself a Whig, he was in reality a Democrat of the 
most extreme type. He was a strong believer in 
State sovereignty, or the right of a State to act in- 
dependently of the national government and even 
to leave the Union if it chose. He had therefore 
emphatically approved of South Carolina's attempt 
at nullification and had bitterly opposed Jackson's 
course in stamping it out, and it was only to show 




VAN BUREN, HARRISON, TYLER. 



91 



his hostility to Jacl<son that he (nominally) left the 
Democratic party and became a Whig. The Whigs 
had placed his name on the ticket in the hope that 
it might attract the votes of other Southerners who 
thought as he did. He was from Virginia and had 
been governor of that State, a member of Congress 
and Senator. 

Tyler's administration was a four years' struggle 
between the President and the Whigs in Congress. 
Nearly every bill passed by them was vetoed by him, 
and though they had for the first half of his term a 
majority in both houses it was of little avail against 
his opposition. All the members of his Whig cabi- 




JOHN C. CALHOUN. 

net soon resigned excepting Daniel Webster, Secre- 
tary of State, who remained in office to complete a 
treaty he was arranging with Great Britain for the 
extradition of criminals and the settlement of the 
boundary between Canada and Maine (1842). This 
was the first treaty ever made by the United States 
providing for the return of criminals to the country 
from which they had fled, but we now have similar 
treaties with nearly all civilized nations. Webster, 
who made the treaty, was Clay's great rival in the 
leadership of the Whig party. He was a Senator 
for many years from Massachusetts and was with- 
out dispute the foremost orator of his age. His 
most brilliant opponent was John C. Calhoun, who 



succeeded him as Tyler's Secretary of State, and 
who previously had been Monroe's Secretary of War 
and Vice-President during Jackson's first term. It 
was, however, while in Congress (to which he was 




SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 



sent by South Carolina) that Calhoun, like Web- 
ster and Clay, won his great fame. As the most 
eloquent defender of slavery, the leading advocate 
of State sovereignty and the originator of nullifica- 



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MORSE S TRANSMITTING PLATE. 



92 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



tion. he occupied for nearly twenty years before the 
nation the most commanding position held by any 
Southern man. 
The most important difference between Tyler and 




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TRANSMITTING KEY. 

Congress was on the annexation of Texas. Texas 
had belonged to Mexico, but in 1835 had rebelled 
and set up a government of its 
own. Many Americans had settled 
there, and through their efforts ap- 
plication was made by it for annex- 
ation to the United States. This 
Tyler would have been glad to do, 
but at first Congress would not con- 
sent. The North opposed its admis- 
sion both on the slavery question 
and because of the probability that 
it would involve us in war with Mex- 
ico. The South favored it, as it 
would help to preserve the balance 
between the slave and free States, 
which the South feared would soon 
be lost to her through the increas- 
ing settlements in the (free) North- 
west. The matter was discussed 
during all of Tyler's term and be- 
came the controlling issue in the election of his suc- 
cessor (1844). Then the verdict of the people was 



possessing the oldest settlement in the United 
States (St. Augustine, founded 1565). her increase 
in population had been slow, owing chiefly to the 
vast swamps which occupied so much of her ter- 
ritory. It was on this account that 
her admission as a State was delayed 
for nearly twenty-five years after her 
purchase from Spain (1821). 

But Tyler's administration is to be 
~ associated with something of immense- 

ly more consequence than the annex- 
ation of Texas or the extradition treaty. 
j^s-~ In the year that he went out of ofRce 

the third greatest invention that the 
world has known — with which only 
printing and the steam-engine can be compared 
— was perfected and put into operation. Samuel 





ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE, 1 866, 

for admission, and in the following year she was 
both annexed and made a State — the last slave 
State to enter the Union. Florida, also a slave 
State, had preceded her by a few months. Though 



MORSE S RECORDING TELEGRAPH. 

F. B. Morse had secured patents for an electric 
telegraph in 1837, but it was not until 1845 that 
he could obtain the necessary 
money from Congress to show 
the practical usefulness of his 
invention. Then a line was 
built from Baltimore to Wash- 
ington and the value of his 
discovery at once showed it- 
self. Telegraphy has now 
come to play so important a 
part in the conduct of all public and private busi- 
ness that it is no longer possible to measure the 
changes it has produced or to estimate the benefits 
it has conferred. 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 



93 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE MEXICAN WAR. 



The election of 1844 turned upon the annexation 
of Texas, the Democrats supporting it and the 
Whigs opposing it. The former won and their can- 
didate, James K. Polli, accordingly became Presi- 
dent in 1845. Clay for the third time had received 
the nomination of his party and for the third time 
had been defeated. 

Polk was born in North Carolina, but at the age 
of ten removed to Tennessee, of which he later be- 
came Representative in Congress and afterwards 
Governor. He served but one term, and of this the 
great event was the Mexican War. 

Mexico had never acknowledged the indepen- 
dence of Texas, and felt aggrieved at the action of 
the United States in annexing it while still regarded 
by her as a rebellious province. This feeling of 
soreness was further increased by a disagreement 
as to its western boundary. A strip of land lying 
between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers was 
claimed by both the Texans and the Mexicans. 
President Polk upheld the claim of the former and 
sent General Zachary Taylor to take possession of 
the disputed territory. This the Mexicans resented, 
as they considered it an invasion of their country, 
and a body of their soldiers crossing the Rio Grande 
attacked and overcame a small troop of American 
cavalry (April 26, 1846). Congress thereupon de- 
clared (May 13) that Mexico had begun war and 
voted the necessary money and men for carrying it 
on. Though the Whigs did not approve of the war 
as having been needlessly commenced by the Presi- 
dent (and not by Mexico), they did not oppose 
granting the money, as they thought that the sol- 
diers already sent to the frontiers should be pro- 
tected. 

The war thus begun was an almost unbroken 
series of victories for the Americans, whose disci- 
pline, equipment and good leadership enabled them 
to overcome in nearly every battle greatly superior 
numbers. Taylor soon drove the Mexicans back 
over the Rio Grande and gained control of the tract 
of land in question. California (then Mexican ter- 
ritory) was conquered with little difficulty during 
the same summer (1846) by a fieet sent around to 
the Pacific, assisted by land forces under Fremont, 
then in the West exploring Oregon. At the same 
time what is now New Mexico was seized by Gen- 
eral Kearny, who led a body of troops there over- 



land from Kansas. This gave the United States 
possession of all the provinces of Mexico excepting 
those which still belong to her, and the rest of the 
war was entirely waged within her present bounda- 
ries. 

In the latter part of 1846 Taylor with some six 
thousand men moved into northern Mexico and on 
Sept. 24 stormed and captured Monterey in the face 




of odds of nearly two to one. The following Feb- 
ruary he won a yet more brilliant victory at Buena 
Vista. His force, which after the battle of Monterey 
had been increased to nine thousand men, was now 
reduced (by reinforcements sent to assist General 
Scott in an expedition against central Mexico) to five 
thousand men, of whom nearly all were fresh recruits 
untried in battle. In this condition he was met by 
Santa Anna, the Mexican commander-in-chief, with 
an army of twenty thousand men. Taylor was able 
to place his men to advantage at the head of a steep 



94 



HISTORY OF THE UXITED STATES. 



mountainous pass (Buena Vista), where they could 
only be attacked in front. Santa Anna charged the 



leaving two thousand dead behind him (Feb. 24, 

1847). 




BATTLE OF BUEXA VISTA. 



Americans again and again, but was beaten back 
each time, and at length after a day spent in fruitless 
attempts to dislodge them from their position was 
comjjelled to abandon the contest and to retire. 



While General Taylor was operating in northern 
Mexico, General Winfield Scott was proceeding 
against the central portion of the country with a 
view to ending the war by capturing the City of 



THE MEXICAN WAR. 



95 



Mexico. Crossing the Gulf of Mexico in March, 
1847, with a force of thirteen thousand men, he at- 
tacl<ed Vera Cruz, and after more than a week's 
cannonading captured it (March 27) with five thou- 
sand prisoners and five hundred pieces of artillery. 
He then set out with nine thousand men for the 
capital, defeating the enemy wherever he met them, 
but fighting no important battle excepting that of 
Cerro Gordo, where he was opposed by Santa Anna 
at the head of twelve thousand Mexicans, whom he 
badly routed, taking three thousand of them pris- 
oners. Resting on high land for a while during the 
hot and sickly summer months, he took up his 
march again in August and soon reached the bor- 
ders of the valley where the city lay. Making a 
new road for themselves around the fortifications 
built to defend the valley, the Americans began the 
descent of the mountain side and met with no seri- 
ous delay until they arrived within ten miles of the 
city. There a more resolute attempt was made to 
check them and in one day (August 20) they fought 
five battles and were victorious in all. 

The Mexicans then took refuge in the city, leav- 
ing Scott in possession of pretty much everything 
outside with the exception of the fortress of Cha- 
pultepec, situated on a steep hill, and a smaller fort 
below it called Molino del Rey. The latter was 



easily captured, but more trouble was found in tak- 
ing the former, as its position rendered it difficult of 
access. The Americans finally effected an entrance 




SANTA ANNA. 



through the windows by the use of scaling-ladders, 
and after a stubborn resistance compelled its sur- 
render (Sept. 13). Then they turned at once upon 
the city and attacked it upon an unexpected side. 




CITY OF MEXICO. 



96 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Santa Anna with the remnant of his army fled, and 
on Sept. 14, 1847, Scott entered and the American 
flag floated over the capital of Mexico. 




■•^^fSifS^S* 



SAN FRANCISCO IN 1849. 

There were a few skirmishes after this in other 
parts of the country, but the war was virtually ended 
with the capture of the City of Mexico, though the 
treaty of peace was not signed 
until the following February 
(1848). By it the United States 
not only gained the strip of land 
which had caused the war but 
also the territory now included 
in California, Nevada, Utah, Ari- 
zona and New Mexico, as well 
as part of Colorado and Wyom- 
ing. For the cession of this land 
Mexico received fifteen millions 
of dollars in money and the as- 
sumption by Congress of a debt 
of three and a half millions of dol- 
lars which she owed to American 
citizens. Though she had made 
but little use of them and they 
were very thinly settled, Mexico 
was very reluctant to give u p these 
provinces. But the Americans 
were determined to have them on 
account of the fertility of the 
Californian soil and the fine har- 
bor afforded by San Francisco 
Bay, and in fact it was only to 
compel Mexico to sell them that 
the war had been prolonged be- 
yond the first few months. 

When the terms of the sale 
were made neither party knew 



of the special value the purchase was to prove to 
the buyer. No one dreamed there was gold in 
California until just two weeks before the treaty 
was formally signed, when it 
^ZT"* was accidentally discovered on 
the banks of the Sacramento 
River (Jan. 19, 1848). At first 
the news was received with the 
greatest doubt, but when it was 
once clearly proved to be true 
the wildest excitement pre- 
vailed. Men hastened from all 
parts of the country and even 
from Europe to the gold-fields, 
and in less than two years the 
population of California had 
risen from fifteen thousand to 
one hundred thousand inhabi- 
tants. 

The Mexican War was not the 

only foreign difficulty in Polk's 

time. There was also a disagreement with Great 

Britain. Webster in 1842 had settled the northern 

boundary between Canada and the United States as 




GOLD-W.-VbHLKS IN C.\L1F0RNIA. 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY STRUGGLE. 



97 



far west as the Rocky Mountains, but had been un- 
able to arrange that between the Oregon country 
and British Columbia. England claimed as far 
south as the Columbia River; the United States as 
far north as latitude 54° 40'. American settlement 
of the region had already begun and the feeling 
with many was very strong not to give up an)' of the 
claim, but if necessary to go to war to defend it. 
Their cry was, " Fifty-four forty or fight." Fortu- 
nately moderate counsels prevailed and in 1846 the 
question was adjusted by selecting a middle line 
as the boundary. 

While the negotiations for this boundary treaty 
were in progress the twenty-ninth State was being 
admitted into the Union. Iowa (an Indian name) 
had been part of the Louisiana purchase, and was 
the fourth State formed from that tract. There 
had been an attempt at settlement by the French 
towards the close of the last century, but this had 
failed and it was not until after the Black Hawk 
War (1S32) that the real settlement had begun. 
Two years later (1848) Wisconsin (which also takes 
its name from the Indians) had followed Iowa, and 
was the fifth and last State into which the Northwest 



Territory was divided. A few small settlements had 
been founded within her borders by the French in 
the seventeenth century, but they were of little 
account, and, like Iowa, she had made no actual 
progress towards development until within the pre- 
ceding twenty years. The Missouri Compromise 
and the Ordinance of 1787 made both of these free 
States. 

The year of Iowa's admission, of the commence- 
ment of the Mexican War and of the settlement of 
the northwest boundary, was also the year of the 
invention of the sewing-machine by Elias Howe and 
of the first use of ether in medicine to render pa- 
tients unconscious while undergoing surgical opera- 
tions. In the same year (1846) a new tariff bill was 
passed in which protective duties were entirely done 
away with and the taxes laid simply with a view to 
revenue. This was a victory for the free traders, 
who were in control at the time of all branches of 
the government. Their system was followed until 
the outbreak of the Civil War (i 861), when the neces- 
sity for increased ta.xation furnished an opportunity, 
which was made use of, for accompanying it with 
protective features. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY STRUGGLE. 



The purchase of California brought the slavery 
question once more to the front as the annexation 
of Texas had done three years before, and again 
that question exerted great influence in deciding a 
presidential election. Mexican law did not recognize 
slavery and hence it did not exist in the territory 
ceded to the United States. The soil being already 
free, the anti-slavery men of the North wished it to 
remain so, while Southern planters were equally de- 
sirous that their favorite institution should be per- 
mitted in the new States to be formed in time from 
the purchase. As early as 1846, in the opening 
days of the war, when the acquisition of California 
was first contemplated. Congress began to consider 
this matter and it was not settled when the territory 
was bought or when the time for the election of 
Polk's successor arrived. At that election neither 
the Whigs nor the Democrats, for fear of losing 
some of their supporters, were willing to take decid- 
ed ground on the question and so slavery was not 
mentioned in the platform of either partj'. But it 
was mentioned in the platform of a new party 



which first appeared at this time and which was 
formed solely to oppose the extension of slavery. 
This was the Free-soil partv, whose nominee for 
President (1848) was Martin Van Buren. TheFree- 
soilers did not succeed in electing Van Buren, but 
they drew away enough votes from the Democrats 
to give the presidency to General Taylor. 

General Zachary Taylor, the twelfth President of 
the United States and the second of the only two 
elected by the Whigs, was a soldier by professioa 
and had passed all of his life, since he reached man- 
hood, in the armies of his country. He had gained 
distinction in the War of 1812, in the Black Hawk 
War, and in the War with the Seminoles before his 
brilliant victories at Monterey and at Buena Vista 
had made him the idol of his party. He was the 
first President who had held no political office be- 
fore entering the White House, as the Executive 
Mansion at Washington is popularly called. In the 
latter part of his life he had made his home in 
Louisiana, but he was a nativeof Virginia, thus mak- 
ing the seventh President who could claim the Old 



98 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Dominion as the place of his birth or residence, and 
which gave that State the proud name of " the moth- 
er of Presidents." 

But the Whigs were unfortunate. Again their 
President died in office (July 9, iS5o),and again the 
reins of government fell into the hand of the Vice- 
President, though luckily this time he was a man 
more in sympathy with their ideas than Tyler had 
been. Millard Fillmore, whom Taylor's death pro- 
moted to the presidency, had been a member of 
Congress and Comptroller of New York (his own 
State) before his name had been joined with Taylor's 
on the electoral ticket in 1S48. Though a life-long 
Whig he had never been a leader of his party, and as 
President he made but little mark on the history of 
his time. 

The population of California increased so rapidly 
after the discovery of its gold-fields that it had not 
long been United States territory before it was de- 
manding the privileges of statehood. This com- 
pelled a decision on the much debated and long 
delayed question of its slavery position. After an- 
other year's discussion the matter was at last settled 
in a way suggested by Clay, who was still in the 
Senate and who was a great believer in arranging 
disagreements by compromise. Clay's plan was to 





ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 

gratify the North by admitting California as a free 
State and at the same time please the South by 
adopting a new and more rigid fugitive slave law. 
Other disputes were also disposed of in the same act, 
which was thus of a very mixed character and was 
named the " Omnibus Bill." Congress approved of 
the measure, and accordingly in September, 1850, 
California entered the Union as the thirty -first 
State. 

The compromise worked we"l in every respect ex- 
cepting that in regard to fugitive slaves. But this 
proved a very important exception. A somewhat 
similar law had been on the statute-books since the 
foundation of the government, but hitherto it had 
rot been very vigorously enforced. The new law, 
directing United States officials to arrest runaways 
wherever found and hand them over to their mas- 
ters, was carried out with great strictness and often 
with considerable harshness and cruelty. It was a 
law, moreover, which could be. and doubtless was, 
many times abused in the seizure of negroes who 
always had been free and bearing them off into bond- 
age on the pretext that they were escaped slaves. 
Such negroes were not allowed to testify in their own 
behalf, and so often were without any means of prov- 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY STRUGGLE. 



99 



ing that they never had been slaves. The law had 
been framed principally for application in the free 
States, where naturally fugitive slaves would be 
most apt to take refuge, and its execution both 
upon actual runaways and free negroes gave a shock 
to the moral sentiment of the North as nothing else 
had done. For the first time it seemed to appreci- 
ate what the evils of slavery really were, and a deep 
and growing indignation was aroused that Northern 
leaders should ever have allowed Congress to pass 
such an act. The anti-slavery cause was helped 
more in a few months by the operation 
of this law than the Abolitionists had 
been able to advance it in twenty years 
of preaching. Northern feeling now be- 
gan to turn towards ridding the country 
of slavery altogether instead of only re- 
stricting it, and this was what the Abo- 
litionists had long been striving for. 

The first effect of this changing senti- 
ment in the North showed itself in the 
break-up of the Whig party. The anti- 
slavery men left it in dissatisfaction at 
its approval of the fugitive slave law, 
and this caused its Southern members 
also to withdraw and join the Demo- 
crats, who were more in accord with 
their views on what every one saw was 
to be the great issue for some years be- 
fore the people — and that was the rela- 
tion of slavery to the Union. The anti- 
slavery men did not at first see how they 
could give effect to their ideas, and so 
for a while their political influence was 
little felt. As a consequence, in 1852, 
Franklin Pierce, the Democratic presi- 
dential candidate, received more than 
five-sixths of the electoral votes cast. 

Pierce was from New Hampshire, and 
had been successively a Representative 
in Congress and United States Senator; 
winning also some distinction after- 
wards in the Mexican War, which he entered as a 
volunteer and from which he emerged as a briga- 
dier-general. During his administration the slavery 
contest continued to be the most absorbing topic 
of public interest. 

Kansas and Nebraska were the objects in the next 
stage of the great struggle. Their settlement had 
begun and it became necessary to provide for them 
territorial governments. They were part of the 
Louisiana purchase, and so by the Missouri Com- 
promise their soil should be free. But this the 
South was determined if possible to prevent, as it 



would surely increase the anti-slavery vote later on 
when the time came for their admission as States. 
Taking advantage, therefore, of their complete con- 
trol of all branches of the government, the demo- 
crats in 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise and 
enacted that the people in each Territory should de- 
cide for themselves whether or not slavery should 
be permitted within its boundaries. 

The North looked upon this act as a deliberate 
breach of faith on the part of the South, and it ex- 
cited even deeper indignation than the fugitive 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 

slave law had done. The anti-slavery men resolved, 
however, that the South should not profit by it, and 
large numbers of Free-soilers emigrated to Kansas 
and Nebraska in order to form a majority of their 
settlers and so insure their entrance into the Union 
as free States. The planters were equally bent 
upon making them slave States, and so they like- 
wise began to colonize the two Territories. A 
struggle for control began between the opposing 
parties which lasted for five years and in which 
the worst elements of human passion were dis- 
played. Possession of the land was fought for 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



with knife and pistol, and deeds of violence were so 
frequent that the Territory which first became a 
State was long known as "bleeding Kansas." In 
the end the greater numbers of the Free-soilers pre- 
vailed and secured the exclusion of slavery. A hos- 
tile Congress, however, withheld the rights of state- 
hood until the Democrats lost control of the United 
States Senate by the secession of its Southern 
members. 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise vastly in- 
creased the ranks of those opposed to the extension 




JOHN C. FRE.MOXT. 

of slavery and ser\'ed to unite them all into one 
compact body which took the name of the Repub- 
lican party. Its first appearance was in 1S54, when 
it elected a majority of the House of Representa- 
tives. Two years later it put a presidential candi- 
date into the field, John C. Fremont ; but though it 
had grown wonderfully during the short period of 
its existence, it was not yet strong enough to elect 
a President, and Fremont was defeated by his Dem- 
ocratic opponent, James Buchanan. 

James Buchanan, the only Pennsylvanian who 
has been President, had represented his native State 



in both houses of Congress, had been a member 
of Polk's Cabinet (Secretary of State) and Minister 
both to Russia and Great Britain before he entered 
upon the duties of the highest office of all. He was- 
an accomplished lawyer and had a profound knowl- 
edge of politics, but he did not possess sufficient 
force of character to contend with the exceptional 
difficulties of the time, which day by day were driv- 
ing the two sections of the country further apart. 

Three more States were created during his term : 
Minnesota in 1858, Oregon in 1S59, and Kansas in 
1 86 1. The settlement of the first of 
these (part of the Louisiana tract) had 
been long delayed by Indian occupation 
of the soil, but in 185 1 the red men con- 
sented to give up their land to the 
whites, and in a few years her population, 
liad become large enough for her to enter 
the Union. The Californian gold-fever 
liad hastened the settlement of Oregon, 
begun a few years before, by drawing- 
people there in the hope that the pre- 
cious metal might also be found within 
her boundaries. Some gold was discov- 
ered there, but agriculture soon proved 
to be much more profitable than mining, 
and she has since become one of our 
great wheat -growing States. Kansas 
was ready for statehood three years be- 
fore it was granted her, but she did not 
receive it until the closing days of Bu- 
chanan's administration and until the 
countr)' was on the eve of Civil War. 

But before any of these new States 
entered the Union another financial 
panic swept over the country (1857) and 
involved many people in ruin. It was 
largely caused by the building of rail- 
roads in the West more rapidly than they 
were needed. They therefore at first did 
not pay their expenses and their build- 
ers became bankrupt. The failure of 
those who had invested their money in these rail- 
roads caused the failure of others, and so the distress 
spread from one class to another until nearly every 
one was to some degree affected. The general loss 
was greater than in the panic of 1837, but it was 
not as severely felt, as the country was richer and 
so could bear it better. 

For the country had been growing much richer 
during all these years. The nine and a half millions 
of people in 1820 had become thirty and a half mill- 
ions in i860, worth over Si 5.000,000.000 in property. 
California was yielding an amount of gold which was 



THE ANTI-SLAVERY STRUGGLE. 



lOl 



■soon to exceed that previously possessed by all the 
rest of the world. The discovery of one precious 
metal was followed ten years later (1S5S) by the 
discovery in Nevada of the other, and in less than 
twenty-five years two hundred and fifty millions of 
dollars' worth of silver have already been taken 
from the Comstock mines alone. Other discoveries 
of natural wealth followed close on the heels of gold 
and silver, among which scarcely any has been 
more valuable or useful than that of petroleum 
<"rock oil"), first found in Pennsylvania in 1859. 
New inventions for use in the arts, 
manufactures and agriculture were con- 
stantly perfected and added no less to 
the wealth of the country than the dis- 
covery and development of its natural 
resources were doing. 

The increase in the prosperity of the 
nation, however, was much greater in 
the North and West than in the South. 
Commerce and manufactures did not 
thrive alongside of slavery and were al- 
most entirely confined to the free States, 
which were growing rich and strong fast, 
while the progress of the slave States 
■was slow. The immense number of im- 
migrants that each year reached our 
shores, and of whom by far the larger 
part were workingmen, preferred to seek 
their bread where all labor was equal 
rather than by the side of bondmen, and 
so few of them turned to the South. '- 
Already the population of the free States ; 
greatly exceeded that of the slave States ; 
and it was manifestly destined to exceed ! 
it still more within a very few years, \ 
owing to the rapid settlement of the new : 
Western States. It did not require 
much foresight for the South therefore £^ 
to see that it would soon be hopelessly 
outvoted by the North. 

This would not have been of so much importance 
if matters had remained as they were during the 
first fifty years of our national history. As long as 
the interests of all parts of the country were pretty 
much the same and both Northern and Southern 
men were found in the same political party it was 
of comparatively little consequence which section of 
the country was the larger. But the moment any- 
thing occurred to set one section against the other, 
the size of each and the number of votes it could 
cast became of the utmost importance. Such a 
time was approaching. The slavery question was 
separating the two sections. As yet the division 



was not complete, for a number of the Northern 
States which were Democratic voted with the 
South. But the rapid growth of the Republican 
party showed how probable it was that the South 
would soon lose this support and all the free States 
be united against the slave States. When that did 
come to pass the South knew that its political 
power would be forever gone, and that it would be 
helpless to resist the North in either preventing the' 
extension of slavery or in abolishing it altogether. 
Rather than this should happen the Southern lead- 




.^;- 




]\M 



ers preferred secession, and they began quietly to 
prepare for it in case the next election should go 
against them. 

The breach between the two parts of the country 
was further widened early in Buchanan's term (1857) 
by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
States that Congress had no power to prohibit 
slavery in the Territories. Though this decision 
was in the interest of the South it did not help her 
cause, as the North refused to be bound by it, holding 
that it was clearly against the spirit of the Constitu- 
tion and that the right had been exercised by Con- 
gress with the consent of all for nearly forty years. 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




JOHN BKOW.V. 

The result of the Dred Scott decision (so called 
from the name of the person who brought the suit) 



therefore was only to make the North even more 
bitter against slavery than it had been when the 
fugitive slave law was put into operation and the 
Missouri Compromise repealed. 

Two years later the South in turn was roused by 
an attempt made by a few extreme Abolitionists to 
raise an insurrection among the slaves. It was 
planned by John Brown, a Kansas Free-soiler. who 
had been driven half mad by the troubles in that 
territory. He led a small party into Virginia and 
seized some arms belonging to the United States 
government at Harper's Ferry with the intention 
of giving them to the negroes. Virginia and Mary- 
land troops quickly overpowered the party, and 
Brown with five of his associates was hung. The 
North strongly denounced Brown's raid, but the 
South could not but believe that it was approved if 
not encouraged and aided by a large number of 
Northern Republicans. And thus another link was 
added to the chain which was steadily drawing the 
two sections asunder. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



Thus far the Northern Democrats had supported 
the views of their Southern brethren, not so much 
because they themselves believed in slavery as be- 




wished its soil to be free. But the claim made by 
the South after the Dred Scott decision, that Con- 
gress not only could not forbid slavery in theTerri- 




STEPHliN .-v. DOUGLAS. 



JOHN C. BKELKENKIUGE. 



cause they had been taught to think that its exist- 
ence was absolutely necessary to the South, and 
also because they felt that each State ought to have 
the right to decide for itself whether or not it 



tories but that it was bound to uphold it wherever 
a master chose to take his slaves, was more than 
the Democrats of the North were ready to accept, 
and accordingly in i860 the party split into two di- 



OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



103 



visions and each section, Northern and Southern, 
put forward a presidential candidate, Stephen A. 
Douglas and John C. Breckenridge. As a result 




JOHN DLLL. 

of this Democratic quarrel the Republican nominee, 
Lincoln, was elected. There was also a fourth 
candidate in the field who received a few votes, 
John Bell, who represented a small party (the 
American or " Know Nothing") which was opposed 
to unrestricted immigration. 

Abraham Lincoln, the best loved of all our Presi- 
dents, excepting always Washington, was a Ken- 
tuckian by birth, but early in life removed to Ind- 
iana, and then to Illinois. Compelled by poverty to 
support himself from boyhood, he educated himself 
and worked his way from the position of a common 
farm laborer and rail splitter to that of a success- 
ful lawyer. The only office previously held by him 
was that of member of Congress, but he narrowly 
missed an election to the United States Senate in 



1858, his successful opponent being Douglas, the 
leader of the Northern Democracy, whom he in 
turn had now defeated in the presidential race. 

The South looked upon the election of Lincoln 
as the death-blow to any hope of extending slavery 
beyond its present limits and as even imperilling 
the future existence of slavery itself. Southern 
leaders thereupon began to arrange for carrying out 
the plans previously formed of seceding from the 
Union and establishing a new government, com- 
posed of the slave States, independent of 'the 
United States. South Carolina was the first to act 
and on Dec. 20, i860, passed an "ordinance of se- 
cession." Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia 





LINCOLN'S EARLY HOME IN GENTRVVILLE, IND. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

land Louisiana followed in January, i86i,and Texas 
tin February. Thus before Lincoln actually began 
|his administration (March 4, 1861) seven States had 
^declared themselves no longer members of the 
(Union. 

The South had claimed for many years that the 

lUnion was only a compact or alliance among the 

iStates, which any of them could end whenever it 

fdesired to do so. The North asserted the Union to 

|be much more than this : that by the adoption of 

the Constitution the individual States had given up 

gtheir sovereignty and had become only parts of one 

nation. It therefore denied the right of secession 

and considered it but another name for rebellion. 



I04 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



February 4, 1 861, delegates from the seven seced- army, Secretary of War under Pierce, and United 
ing States organized (at Montgomery, Ala.) a new States Senator from Mississippi. Stephens on the 
government under the name of the Confederate contrary had opposed secession, but like most 





JEFFERSON DAVIS. 



THE CONFEDERATE FLAG. 



States of America and elected JefTerson Davis Presi- Southerners he felt that his State had a stronger 

dent and Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President. claim upon his allegiance than the Union had, and 

Davis was one of the prime movers in bringing so when Georgia adopted the ordinance he cast in 

about secession. He had been an officer in the his fortunes with her. 




LINCOLN KEVIEWLNG IHE TROUl'S IN WASHINGTON. 



OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



i°S 




INTERIOR AND FLAG OF FORT SUMTER AFTER THE liOMBARDMENT. 



Members of the United States Cabinet, Senators, 
Congressmen, clerks in the departments and officers 
of the army, who were citizens of the seven Con- 
federate States, with very few exceptions resigned 
their positions when their States seceded and re- 
turned to their homes. Government property in 
the rebellious States was taken possession of by the 
secession authorities and United States officials 
were not allowed to perform their duties. Forts and 
arsenals belonging to the national government were 
seized and the arms contained in them used to equip 
Southern troops. Only Fort Sumter in Charleston 
harbor and Fort Pickens at Pensacola escaped, and 
the former did not long continue an exception, as it 
was captured by force soon after Lincoln entered 



upon the presidency and before he could succeed 
in relieving it. 

Two months remained of Buchanan's term when 
the secession movement actively began, but he did 
nothing to prevent it. Nor would he allow any re- 
sistance to be made to the seizure of federal prop- 
erty in the Southern States. When Lincoln, there- 
fore, took charge of affairs he found that the 
authority of the United States had come to a com- 
plete stop in these seven States and that no prepa- 
rations whatever had been made on the part of the 
North for the coming struggle. 

At first peaceable means, efforts at compromise, 
were made to induce the secessionists to abandon 
their attempt at forming a separate government 



io6 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



and to resume their place in the Union. These 
failing, the President and Congress determined 
that the integrity of the country must be maintained 
at any cost and the rebellion put down by force. 
Lincoln thereupon called for seventy-five thousand 
volunteer soldiers (April 15), and the call was 



had not believed in the wisdom of secession and as 
yet had taken no part in it. They were, however, 
advocates of the right of secession if any State saw 
fit to exercise the right, and they strongly opposed 
the idea that a State could be compelled to remaia 
in the Union against its will, or that force should 




THE SIXTH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT IN BALTIMORE. 



eagerly responded to by many times that number 
of men in the North and West whose blood had 
been roused by South Carolina's bombardment of 
Fort Sumter and its surrender three days before. 

While Lincoln's proclamation for volunteers ex- 
cited the patriotism of the North, it had exactly the 
contrary effect in the border States. These States 



be used in an attempt to hold a State. Virginia, 
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, accord- 
ingly, when called upon by the President to furnish 
their proportion of troops to crush the rebellion, 
refused, preferring to throw in their lot with the se- 
ceders by withdrawing from the Union and joining' 
the Confederacy. Though there were many seces- 



OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR. 



107 



sionists in the other three slave States (Missouri, 
Kentucky and Maryland) they were not in a major- 
ity, so that those States remained loyal. Thus when 
hostilities began there were eleven Confederate 
and twenty-three Union States. 

The first gun of the war was that fired at Fort 
Sumter; the first blood was that shed on April 19 
when a mob in Baltimore attacked a Massachusetts 
regiment on its way to the defence of Washington. 
This was, however, nothing but a street fight and 
did not prevent the capital's soon becoming thor- 
oughly well protected. No real battle occurred 
for several months, though a few minor skirmishes 
took place in the meantime. Richmond, after the 
secession of Virginia, was made the capital of the 
Confederacy, and its capture at once became the 
great object of Northern plans as being the surest 
way, it was thought, to speedily end the war. 
Urged on by public clamor, but against his own 
judgment, Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott (the 
federal commander-in-chief) sent General McDow- 
ell with some thirty thousand men to make the 




G. T. BEAUREGARD. 

attempt. But the South had realized just as keenly 
as the North the importance of its capital and had 
amply arranged for its defence. When, therefore, 
McDowell reached Bull Run (a small stream cross- 
ing the Richmond road thirty odd miles from Wash- 
ington) he found a Confederate army about the size 



of his own, under command of General Beauregard, 
awaiting him, and there was fought (July 21) the 
first battle of the war. The result was disastrous 
to the Union cause, for though McDowell at first 
seemed to have the best of it, Beauregard later in 
the day was reenforced by General A. S. Johnston 




iRviN McDowell. 

at the head of ten thousand men and this decided 
the victory in his favor. The federal troops gave 
way and retreated to Washington. 

In some smaller engagements, as well as at Bull 
Run, the results of the first year were not encourag- 
ing to the North and showed that the war would 
not be finished in the three months hoped for. 
Both sides found their opponents better fighters 
than had been expected and so each had to prepare 
for a longer contest than either at the start had an- 
ticipated. The advantages of the situation, how- 
ever, lay nearly all with the North. It had greater 
territory, a larger population and more wealth to 
draw upon in carrying on the struggle. Moreover,, 
as the scene of the conflict was in the enemy's 
country its own land escaped the ravages of war. 
On the other hand the very fact that the South 
was the theatre of the war was in one way a help 
to the Confederates, as it gave them the feeling 
that they were fighting in defence of their own 
homes and firesides. Another circumstance at first 
in their favor was that Southern men as a rule were 
more accustomed to out-door life and were more 
fond of active sports than were the men of the 
North, and so more quickly adapted themselves to 
the soldier's life; but this was an advantage which 
did not last long. 

Though the North gained no great victory dur- 
ing 1861, it prepared itself for winning victories in 
the future by gathering together necessary military 



io8 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



stores, purchasing steamers for use as war vessels, 
erecting forts and enlisting soldiers. Disunionists 
in Missouri were driven from that State, and west- 
ern Virginia, where there were few slave-owners 
and whose inhabitants in the main were loyal, was 
also freed from the disaffected. A line was drawn 
around the seceding States and guarded by North- 
ern troops, thus confining the Confederates pretty 
strictly to their own territory. The federal position 
was still further strengthened by blockading with 
naval vessels the Southern ports, so that soon al- 
most the entire Confederacy was surrounded by 
Union land and sea forces. 

The advancing age of General Scott caused him 
before the close of 1861 to resign his commission 
and to retire from the army. The command was 
thereupon given to General George B. McClellan, 
who had made the greatest success of this first year 
in securing and holding possession of western Vir- 
ginia. McClellan proceeded to Washington and at 
once devoted himself to drilling and organizing the 
large number of raw recruits who had hastily been 
mustered into service and hurried to the national 
capital, and by the end of the year he had con- 




GEORGE B. McClellan. 

verted this great mass of untrained citizens into 
a disciplined army of a hundred and fifty thousand 
soldiers. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



EVENTS OF 1862. 



The events of 1862, though not decisive in their 
result, were on the whole favorable to the North, 




DON CARLOS BUELL. 



and it occupied a stronger position at the close of 
the year than it held at the beginning. The line 
around the Confederates was drawn yet tighter and 
their operations confined still more rigidly within 
its limits. A stricter blockade of Southern ports 
was established and maintained. Control over 
most of the Mississippi River was secured. The 
greater part of Tennessee was reclaimed. New 
Orleans and some other important places were cap- 
tured. And every effort made by the Confederates 
to break through the besieging Union armies was 
frustrated and repulsed. Much territory was gained 
by the North and none lost. But the capture of 
Richmond, the thing most desired of all, seemed 
no nearer when the year ended than when it com- 
menced. 

When the year opened it found half a million vol- 
unteers enlisted in the ser\'ice of the United States. 
These were divided into various armies and sta- 
tioned at different points around the Confederacy. 
The largest of these divisions was the Army of the 
Potomac (underthe immediate command of McClel- 



EVENTS OF 1862. 



109 



Ian), encamped in the neighborhood ofWashington, 
where it had been collected both for the defence of 
the national capital and for an advance upon Rich- 
mond. Another important division (commanded 
by Gen. Don Carlos Buell) was placed in Kentucky 
with the object of regaining Tennessee and of aid- 
ing in opening up the Mississippi River. The con- 
trol of that river was important to the Unionists, as 
their possession of it would divide the Confederacy 
by separating Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas from 
the other seceding States. 

Buell's campaign was largely successful. Aided 
by Grant (who was soon to become the hero of the 
war) he defeated the Confederate army, which 
under Gen. A. S. Johnston was guarding the north- 
ern frontier of Tennessee, in a number of battles 
and finally drove it from the State. The most seri- 
ous of these battles was that of Shiloh (or Pitts- 
burg Landing), fought on the banks of the Ten- 
nessee River on April 6. Grant was awaiting there 
the arrival of Buell when he was attacked by John- 
ston at the head of forty thousand men. Taken 



wholly by surprise, the Union troops at first fell 
back, but their gunboats checked the enemy after 
its first advance and gave Grant an opportunity to 




A. S. JOHNSTON. 

rally his men. While the battle was still in prog- 
ress, part of Buell's army reached him and with its 
aid he drove the enemy from the field, though not 




GUNBOATS PASSING BEFORE VICKSBURG. 



no 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



until after Johnston had been killed. Grant's loss 
was thirteen thousand out of a total of fifty-seven 
thousand engaged. The Confederate dead num- 
bered eleven thousand. 

Forts Henry and Donelson (on the Tennessee 
and Cumberland Rivers respectively) had fallen 
into federal hands before the battle of Shiloh, the 
first taken by Admiral Foote and the second by 
Grant, and the capture (May 30) of Corinth in the 
northern part of the State of Mississippi soon after 
that battle cleared the Mississippi as far south as 
Memphis. Though the Confederate General Bragg 




AU.MIKAL FOOTE. 

later in the year raided Tennessee (as well as Ken- 
tucky), he did not succeed in holding anything but 
a part of eastern Tennessee, the rest of the State 
remaining for the balance of the war under the 
military control of the United States. 

While Buell and Grant were thus busy in Ten- 
nessee, other leaders were doing equally good work 
further south. Roanoke Island (North Carolina) 
was taken by General Burnside and Commodore 
Goldsborough in February, and St. Augustine and 
other Florida cities were captured a little later on 
by another body of Union troops. On April 11 



Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah River 
also surrendered. Hatteras Inlet, Port Royal and 
some minor points on the coast had fallen to the 
North in 1861 and had been among its few suc- 




BRAXTON BRAGG. 

cesses of that year. The task of blockading South- 
ern ports thus became much easier, as nearly all of 
the prominent places on the Atlantic seaboard were 
now in federal hands, Charleston and Wilmington 
being the principal exceptions. 

Another naval expedition besides that of Burn- 
side and Goldsborough was also sent out in Febru- 
ary to attack a much more important point than 




A. E. BURNSIDE. 



either Roanoke Island or Fort Pulaski. It was 
under command of Commodore Farragut and 
General Benjamin F. Butler, and had for its ob- 
ject the capture of New Orleans. The value of 



EVENTS OF 1862. 



that city as commanding the entrance to the Mis- 
sissippi was fully appreciated by both sides, and the 
Confederates had spared no pains in providing it 
•with the most elaborate defences. On the opposite 
banks of the Mississippi some distance below New 
Orleans were two strong forts and stretched be- 
tween them were heavy chains, resting on masses 
•of timber. Back of the chains were placed floating 
batteries, fire rafts and gunboats. Along the shores 
from the forts to the city were other batteries. For 
the protection of the city itself ten thousand sol- 
diers had been collected within its walls. 

On April 18 the attack was begun by a bombard- 
ment of the forts which was kept up for nearly a 
week, but without avail. Farragut then decided 
to force a way through the obstructions in the river 
•despite the forts and the enemy's boats. Selecting 
a dark night he sent a few of his gunboats ahead 
to cut the chains and open a passage, following him- 
self soon after with the rest of his fleet. The heavy 
guns of the forts and the batteries on the banks 
poured a steady and murderous fire upon him as 
he advanced, but he passed them in safety, fought *i^ 
and destroyed the river fleet, and on April 25 New 
Orleans was taken. The surrender of the forts 
quickly followed, and the lower Mississippi as well 
•as the upper was once more under Union control, 
leaving Vicksburg and Port Hudson the only points 
on the river which remained to the Confederates. 
They for the present were safe, as they were situ- 
ated on bluffs too high to be successfully attacked 
by gunboats. 




v\V^ 



Before New Orleans surrendered, before even the 
attack upon it had commenced, the North had 
been confronted by a novel and unexpected dan- 
ger, which looked for the moment as though it 




MOXITOR. 



112 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 





IRONCLAD GUNBOAT. 



might prove a fatal one. Up to the outbreak of the 
Civil War ironclad vessels had never been used as 
ships of war, indeed they had scarcely yet been em- 
ployed for any purpose, a few only having recently 
been built by France and England as an experi- 




UOUBLE-TURRET IRONCLAD. 



ment. When the Confederates took possession oi 
the Norfolk navy yard on the secession of Virginia 
they found there a wooden frigate named the " Mer- 
rimac." By covering this with metal plates they 
turned it into an ironclad and made it still more 
formidable by fastening an iron ram to its 
bow. Early in March she was ready for 
service and proceeded at once into Hamj)- 
ton Roads and attacked the " Cumberland " 
and four other United States men-of-war 
which with some smaller vessels were lying 
there at anchor. These all found themselves 
powerless against her. Their shot made no 
impression upon her iron coat, while she 
could pound them at will with ball upon 
every quarter, or tear open their sides with 
her iron ram. The wooden ships were abso- 
lutely at her mercy. The " Cumberland " 
was sunk and the others would have shared 
the same fate had not darkness compelled 
the " Merrimac " to suspend the attack. 

When the telegraph that night spread the 
news of the terrible destructiveness of the 
invincible " Merrimac " the North was struck 
with consternation. What was there to 
prevent Washington, Baltimore, Philadel- 
phia, New York, Boston and every loyal 



EVENTS OF 1862. 



"3 



city from being either captured or levelled to the 
ground, the merchant ships and navy of the Union 
from being swept off the face of the ocean, and the 
Confederacy from overrunning and subjugating ev- 
ery free State ? 

Twenty-four hours changed this panic of fear into 
a shout of exultation. For while the South had 
been occupied in converting the " Merrimac " into 
an armored vessel, John Ericsson, a Swedish engi- 
neer in New York, had been as busily engaged in 
building an ironclad for the North. His work was 
also finished in March and received from him the 
name of " Monitor." Having been sent to the 
South under command of Lieutenant Worden, the 
" Monitor " chanced to reach Fortress Monroe (in 
the Hampton Roads) the very night which followed 
the loss of the " Cumberland." When the " Merri- 
mac" returned the next morning (March 9) to 
complete her work of destruction she was attacked 
by the " Monitor " (her inferior in size and strength) 
and after a long fight was compelled to retire to 
Norfolk, from which she did not again venture 
forth. The victory of the " Monitor " not only 
carried joy to the North, but it revolutionized naval 
architecture all fever the world. Every nation at 
once began building ironclads, and they have since 
almost entirely supplanted in every civilized coun- 
try wooden vessels as ships of war. 

In Virginia, destined from the start to be the 
great battle-ground of the war, matters did not run 
as smoothly for the North in 1862 as they did else- 
where. There was much fighting there during the 
year, but little came of it. Two expeditions were 
sent against Richmond and both failed. McClellan 
led the first (numbering one hundred thousand 
men) in the Spring by boat to Fortress Monroe and 
thence up the peninsula which separates the York 
and James Rivers. This route was chosen to avoid 
the bad roads and swollen and unbridged streams 
of the more direct one overland. But before he 
reached Richmond, after meeting the enemy with 
varying success in a number of engagements, a 
series of attacks upon the forces left for the defence 
of Washington recalled him to that city. Another 
effort was made by General Burnside with a still 
larger army later in the year. Burnside took the 
shortest road, but was so badly defeated at Fred- 
ericksburg (December 1 3) that he also had to give 
up the attempt. 

After McClellan's return to Washington, and be- 
fore Burnside started on his expedition. General 
Robert E. Lee, the commander-in-chief of the Con- 
federacy, led an army north in an attempt to break 
through the Union lines and capture some impor- 
tant Northern city. McClellan threw himself in 



> 

H 

H 



> 
Z 

M 
H 
> 

s 




114 



HISTORY OF THE UNTlED STATES. 



) 



Lee's way, compelled him to turn aside from his 
direct path and then hastened after him. At An- 
tietam (Maryland) the two armies met and fought 
one of the great battles of the war (September 17). 
Neither side won a decided victory, but Lee gave up 
his invasion and returned to Virginia. 

There had been a good deal of dissatisfaction with 
McClellan before the battle of Antietam. He had 
been nearly a year in command of the Army of the 
Potomac, the largest, best drilled and most thor- 
oughly equipped body of soldiers on the continent, 
and had accomplished nothing? To his excessive 
slowness and overcaution was laid the failure of the 



Spring campaign against Richmond and of all the 
other operations in Virginia. The result at Antie- 
tam, particularly his allowing Lee to escape with his 
army afterwards, greatly heightened the general dis- 
trust in him at Washington and determined Lincoln 
at last to remove him from the command. This 
was done and his place given to Burnside, who had 
so successfully conducted the expedition against 
Roanoke Island early in the year. Burnside, how- 
ever, was able to retain it but a short time. His de- 
feat at Fredericksburg compelled him to ask to be 
relieved, and about the beginning of 1863 he was 
succeeded by General Joseph E. Hooker. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR (1863). 



The South had gone to war to perpetuate and to 
extend slavery. But by going to war it brought 
slavery to a much more speedy end than there is any 
likelihood would have otherwise happened. For on 
January i, 1863, the President issued an emancipa- 




THOMAS J. JACKSON {"Stonewall"). 

tion proclamation which declared that all slaves in 
the States then in rebellion should from that time 
forth be considered free. Some months before do- 
ing this Lincoln had warned the seceding States 
that if they did not renew their allegiance to the 



federal government by the close of 1862 he should 
take this step. None of them did lay down their 
arms by that time, and the proclaftiation was accord- 
ingly made. Two years later (1865) the thirteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution was adopted which 
forever prohibited slavery within the United States. 

Once again the Army of the Potomac moved 
towards Richmond, led this time by its new com- 
mander, General Hooker. Skirting the defences at 
Fredericksburg, it had advanced about ten miles on 
its way when it met the Confederates under Lee 
and Jackson at Chancellorsville. The Union forces 
were twice the number of their enemy, but the latter 
were so much better handled by their generals that 
they drove Hooker back (May 2 and 3, 1863) with a 
loss of seventeen thousand men out of the ninety 
thousand he had with him. The Confederate loss 
was twelve thousand, but one of these twelve thou- 
sand was worth an army in himself. This was Gen- 
eral Jackson, Lee's ablest assistant, who had won 
the name of " Stonewall " from his unyielding firm- 
ness and courage at the battle of Bull Run. 

His success at Chancellorsville encouraged Lee in 
the following month to again attempt a Northern 
raid. Taking some seventy thousand men. he moved 
to the west of Hooker's army and then turned and 
started for the North. Hooker followed closely after, 
keeping a little to the right of Lee's line of march so 
as to better protect Washington, Baltimore. Philadel- 
phia and other large and important Eastern cities 
should the Confederates attack them. On reach- 
ing the Pennsylvania border, after crossing western 



THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



"5 



Maryland, Lee changed his course towards Philadel- 
phia. But the Union army (now under General 
Meade in the place of Hooker) was near enough to 
interpose itself between that city and the advancing 
Confederates, and Lee found it awaiting him at 
Gettysburg. The battle which ensued was one of 
the most gallantly fought on both sides of any in 
the war. It lasted three days (July i, 2 and 3) and 
cost over fifty thousand lives. The result was a 
victory for Meade, who again and again repulsed the 
attack of the Confederates and finally drove them 
from the field. This was the most serious reverse 
Lee had as yet met with. He returned to Virginia, 
leaving nearly half the army he had set out with dead 
behind him, and made no further attempt to invade 
the North. 

Another great Union victory was won almost sim- 
ultaneously with that at Gettysburg. As the last 
shots were being exchanged at that battle. Grant 
was completing the capture of Vicksburg, the most 
important of the two points on the Mississippi River 
still in Confederate hands. The close of 1862 had 



left Grant at Corinth, some little distance northeast 
of Vicksburg. Between him and that city was a 
large army under Generals Pemberton and J. E. 




JOSEPH E. HOOKER. 

Johnston, the latter being in command of all the 
Confederates in the West. 

After several unsuccessful attempts on Vicks- 




GUARDING A BRIDGE ON THE POTOMAC. 



ii6 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



burg in other directions, Grant moved a part of liis 
army across the river at Memphis, descended its 
western side and recrossed at a point a little south 
of the city. Pushing northeast he met Pemberton 
and defeated him in a number of battles and at last 




GEORGE G. MEADE. 

compelled him and his men to take refuge in 
Vicksburg. Turning then upon the army which 
Johnston in the meantime had been gathering 
together to aid Pemberton, Grant drove it back 
and united his forces with those which he had left 



behind him under General Sherman when he 
crossed the river. The Union army was now be- 
tween Vicksburg and Johnston and at once began 
a close and active siege of the city. Johnston tried 
to relieve it but was kept at bay by Grant and so 
could give it no help. Unable either to escape 
or to obtain assistance, Pemberton, after holding 
out for six weeks, surrendered and on July 4 gave 
up the place and with it his army of thirty thou- 
sand men to Grant. Only Port Hudson now re- 
mained to the Confederates on the Mississippi, 
and that was not long in following Vicksburg. For 
as soon as the news was received of Pembeiton's 
fate, Port Hudson hastened to make terms with 
General Banks, who was besieging it at the time, 
and on July 8 he took possession. The entire river 
was now completely under federal control and one 
of the two great objects for which the North had 
been striving since the very beginning of the war 
had at length been attained. The result was the 
dividing and in consequence the weakening of the 
Confederacy. 

Of the other operations during 1863 the most 
important were those in Tennessee. Rosecrans 
was the Union commander there, and in June he 




BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 



THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 



117 



moved against Bragg, who still retained the hold 
on the eastern part of the State he had gained the 
preceding year. Bragg slowly fell back across the 
Georgia boundary, where he was reinforced by a 



end of November the siege of Chattanooga was 
vigorously pressed without any opportunity offer- 
ing itself for the escape of those within the appar- 
ently doomed city. The Confederate army sur- 




SIEGE OF VICKSBURG BY GEN. GRANT. 



part of Lee's army from Virginia. At Chicka- 
mauga (twelve miles south of Chattanooga) he 
halted until Rosecrans came up and then attacked 
him (Sept. 19). The Confederates slightly out- 
numbered their opponents and after a two days' 
battle defeated them and compelled them to retire. 



rounding it was large; every passable road leading 
to it was under Bragg's control ; even the neigh- 
boring hills of Lookout Mountain and Missionary 
Ridge were fortified. There seemed to be no more 
chance of assistance reaching it from without than 
there was hope of its saving itself from within. Its 




INTERVIEW BETWEEN GENERALS GRANT AND PEMBERTON. 



Rosecrans and his men thereupon shut themselves 
up in Chattanooga, to which Bragg immediately 
laid siege. 
From the latter part of September till near the 



only choice appeared to be between submission 
and starvation. 

At this juncture Grant arrived. His capture of 
Vicksburg had fixed all eyes upon him as almost 



ii8 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




W. S. ROSENCRANS. 

the only leader who thus far during the war had been 
uniformly successful in his campaigns, and who, 
many already believed, would prove to be the man to 
end the rebellion. He had now been placed in com- 
mand of all the Western forces of the Union and 
had come to Chattanooga to see what could be done 
to relieve the beleaguered city. Collecting an army 
in the rear of that of Bragg, he soon formed his plan 
of attack. This was no less an undertaking than 
to surprise the Confederates by climbmg the two 
mountains, storming the fortifications they had 
erected on them and from the vantage-ground thus 
gained, overlooking as it would Bragg's army, com- 
pel the enemy to abandon the siege. 

The plan worked to a charm. The " battles above 
the clouds " were fought on November 23, 24 and 
25, and were a decisive victory for Grant, who lost 
but six thousand men against ten thousand of those 
opposed to him. Bragg relinquished his attack upon 
the city and retired into Georgia. His retreat from 
Tennessee was immediately followed by that of Gen- 
eral Longstreet, who had been besieging Knoxville 
while Bragg was before Chattanooga. This freed 
the entire State of Tennessee from the Confederates 
and they were not able afterwards to regain control 
of any part of it. From that day to this federal 
authority has been supreme throughout it. 

Arkansas as well as Tennessee was this year 
reclaimed from the Confederacy. There had not 
been many regular engagements in this State during 



the war, most of the fighting being done by guerillas, 
or irresponsible bodies of armed men who did not 
form part of the organized army and were not under 
control of the military authorities. What Confed- 
erate troops there were in the State were easily 
driven out by a force sent into it by Grant soon 
after the surrender of Vicksburg; after which Ar- 
kansas gave but little trouble. 

O n the coast matters d id not go quite so well. Per- 
sistent efforts were made during a considerable part 
of the year to capture Fort Sumter and Charleston, 
but they were fruitless. The fort was battered to 
ruin and great damage was done to the city by the 
cannonading of General Gillmore, the Union com- 
mander, but he failed either to take the one or to 
get nearer to the other than the mouth of the river. 
Sabine Pass and Brownsville, on the Texan coast, 
were, however, captured by an expedition from New 
Orleans, and a naval battle was won by the monitor 
" Weehawken " over the "Atlanta," a Confederate 
ironclad, somewhat similar to the " Merrimac." but 
larger and stronger. As the "Atlanta " was pro- 
ceeding to attack a blockading fleet at the mouth of 
the Savannah, she encountered the "Weehawken," 
to which after a sharp but brief fight of less than 
half an hour she had to surrender (June 17}. 








GENERAL LONGSTREET. 



NEARING THE END. 



"9 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



NEARING THE END (1S64). 



Their defeats at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and 
Chattanooga were a heavy blow to the Confederates 
and crippled them severely. They could ill afford 
to spare the men lost in those battles. They could 
not much better dispense with the supplies they had 
been receiving from beyond the Mississippi and 
from other districts which had now passed under 
Union control. The war 
was bearing down upon the 
South far more cruelly than 
upon the North and was 
taxing its resources to the 
utmost. A large part of its 
men had been pressed into 
the Confederate armies, 
leaving only a comparative- 
ly small number to do the 
work necessary for the sup- 
port of the women and - 
children as well as for the -^ 
maintenance of the soldiers 
themselves. Indeed often ,j ' 
the women and children '-^^ 
were called upon to per- 
form labor for which they 
were unfit through lack of 
men to do it for them. The 
strictness of the blockade 
on land and sea shut out 
goods of every kind and 
compelled the Southerners 
to rely almost entirely for 
what they needed on what 
they could themselves pro- 
duce. The absence of man- 
ufactures in the South 
forced the people to do 
without some of the most 

common necessities. Luxuries were unknown. 
Comforts were rare. The plainest food and cloth- 
ing became scarce and costly. Cotton, tobacco, 
rice and the other articles which once found a ready 
sale at the North and in Europe and which made 
the wealth of the South now lay unsold on their 
owners' hands. For though occasionally a ship 
would successfully run the blockade, it was excep- 



tional, and for the most part the planters were un- 
able to find a purchaser for their products because 
they were unable to send them to market. What 
coin there was when the war began was soon ex- 
hausted and the paper money issued by the Confed- 
erate government to take its place rapidly lost its 
value, so that the people were often unable to buy 




ULYSSES S. GRANT. 

the few things which did escape the blockade 
through want of means to pay for them. 

It was different at the North. There was no 
blockade of Union ports, so that goods could still be 
sent abroad and other goods received in return very 
much the same as before the war. Confederate 
cruisers and privateers interfered somewhat with 
this foreign trade and did it considerable injury, but 



120 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




ROBERT E. LEE. 

they were not able to stop it or e\-en to very serious- 
ly diminish it. Northern manufactures prospered 
as the increased duties, which the enormous war 
expenses of the government made it necessary to lay 
upon imports, stimulated home production. The 
business of the free States suffered little interrup- 
tion, as the scene of the conflict was so distant from 
the territory of most of them. And though the 
taxes were many and heavy, the people were able to 




bear them, and did bear them patiently and cheer- 
fully, suffering far less under their burdens than did 
their Southern opponents. 

At the beginning of 1864 everything pointed to a 
speedy and successful ending of the war by the 
North. Union armies had split the Confederacy, 
taken away great slices of its territory, repelled its 
invasions, defeated it in battle, and were gradually 
confining it within a smaller and smaller space. Its 
lack of means and the privations it was undergoing 
were known to the North and encouraged the gov- 
ernment to feel that the struggle could not last much 




JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. 



BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. 

longer, through sheer inability of the South to sus- 
tain it. 

These hopes were not to be quite fulfilled that 
year, but they were very nearly realized. Immense 
strides were made by the federal armies, and the 
close of 1864 saw the South so weakened that its 
submisson, it was evident to every one, was only 
a question of a few weeks or at the most of a few 
months. This was due to Grant, well seconded by 
Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas, who had most ably 
supported him in the West and who were now to 
be of still greater help in the South. 



NBA RING THE END (1864). 



In March, 1864, the rank of Lieutenant-General, 
which had been allowed to lapse on the retirement 
of General Scott, was revived and conferred upon 
Grant, and with it went the command of all the land 
forces of the United States. Grant at once proceed- 
ed to Virginia to fight Lee and assumed immediate 
charge of the Army of Potomac. He left Sherman 
in command of the army which had been collected in 
Tennessee and which had followed the Confeder- 
ates when they retreated to Dalton (in northern 
Georgia) after the battle of Lookout Mountain and 
who were now under J. E. Johnston in place of 
Bragg. Sherman had about one hundred thousand 
men; Grant a little over that number; Johnston 
some seventy-five thousand, and Lee sixty odd thou- 
sand. The two Northern armies were thus nearly 
double the size of the two opposing ones, and the 
struggle between them constituted the main events 
of the balance of the war. 

The plan adopted by Grant was for both himself 
and Sherman to move against the enemy on the 
same day. Grant with a view to taking Richmond 
and Sherman for the purpose of driving Johnston 
out of the Georgia mountains to level ground and 
there battling with him. By thus acting at the same 
time and keeping Lee and Johnston both steadily 
engaged, the armies of the two latter would be pre- 
vented from aiding each other as they had some- 
times done before. 

May 5 was the day selected for the joint move- 
ment. Grant made his advance in three separate 
divisions: one under General Butler up the James 
River for an attack upon Petersburg, another under 
Generals Hunter and Sigel through the Shenandoah 
valley for the seizure of Lynchburg, and the third 
and main body under his own command by a more 
direct route from the Rappahannock River to the 
Confederate capital. The object of the first two 
expeditions was to threaten Richmond on the east 
and west and so to partially divert Lee's attention 
and to divide his army while Grant was leading 
the assault from the north. 

Butler, Sigel and Hunter were unable to accom- 
plish their part of the task. The first became block- 
aded on a peninsula where he could neither advance 
nor retreat. The other two were defeated and 
compelled to abandon their expedition. Grant was 
in a degree more successful. He gradually forced 
Lee back closer to Richmond, but he did not do this 
without much fighting and heavy losses. Lee was a 
really great general, especially in a defensive cam- 
paign, and protected himself and his men (who were 
greatly outnumbered by those under Grant) with 
the utmost skill, so that the ground won from him 



was gained with great difficulty and only by a costly 
expenditure of life. In the battles of the Wilder- 
ness, Spottsylvania Court-House and Cold Harbor, 
fought in May and June while Grant was slowly 
pushing his way forward, the latter lost nearly 
sixty thousand men and Lee not much over half 
that number. It is but just to add, howev'er, that 
Lee's men were able to fight for the most part 
from behind the fortifications which had been erect- 
ed to defend the approaches to Richmond in every 
direction, and that Grant's losses chiefly occurred in 




PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN. 

attacks upon these fortifications, where his men 
were necessarily much exposed. But Grant was 
able to constantly recruit his army, which Lee could 
only do to a very slight extent. 

Beyond Cold Harbor (a little northeast of Rich- 
mond) Grant found it almost impossible to proceed, 
as the defences on that side of the Confederate cap- 
ital proved too strong to be carried by assault. He 
therefore determined to cross the James River and 
attempt Richmond on its southern side. This was 
done, but Lee at the same time moved his army into 



122 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Petersburg (twenty miles southeast of Richmond) 
and there again checked Grant's further progress. 
From Petersburg to Richmond was a series of 
well-constructed Confederate fortifications which 
Grant at various points tried to break through, 
but was prevented by Lee. Grant then began 
building opposing fortifications so as to strengthen 
the line he was now drawing around Richmond, 



an especial interest on account of its picturesque 
and unexpected ending. The defeat of Sigel and 
Hunter in the Shenandoah valley had left a road 
open for a raid upon Washington through Mary- 
land. Such a raid was made in July by General 
Early, one of the most dashing cavalry officers in the 
South, but he found Washington prepared for him 
and he returned to Virginia unsuccessful. Soon 







SHERIDAN AT CEDAR CREEK. 



and the remainder of 1864 was principally devoted 
by him to this work and to extending his line, with 
the object of cutting off Lee's communications and 
supplies and of finally shutting him up in the city 
itself. 

While Grant was knocking at the gates of Rich- 
mond a battle took place in the western part of 
Virginia which, though it had no great effect upon 
the course of the war, will probably always retain 



after his return he was attacked and defeated at 
Winchester by Sheridan, who had accompanied 
Grant to Virginia and had been placed at the head 
of the Union troops in the Shenandoah valley. 
Early watched his chance, and just a month later 
(Oct. 19) surprised Sheridan's army at Cedar Creek 
and routed it. Sheridan was away at the time, 
but learned the news at Winchester, twenty miles 
distant from the battle-field. Taking horse he 



NEARING THE END. 



123 



rode furiously toward Cedar Creek and on his way 
met liis flying men. Rallying them as he galloped 
past, as much by example as by word, he led them 
back to the scene of their morning's fight, and sur- 
prising Early in turn he snatched their brief vic- 
tory from the Confederates before they had had an 
opportunity to even taste of its sweets. 

In the meantime Sherman was more than carry- 
ing out his part of the joint programme assigned 
him by Grant. He began to move against Johns- 
ton as had been agreed, in May, but he proceeded 
slowly and cautiously, as he rated at their full value 
the great ability and sagacity of his opponent. 
Johnston proved himself worthy of his reputation, 
and only fell back as the superior numbers of Sher- 
man's army threatened to enclose him. Neither 
suffered the other to gain any advantage and 
neither was very desirous of fighting a pitched 
battle in the mountains. In this manner Johnston 
was gradually pushed back from point to point to 
Atlanta, each side meeting with about the same 
loss in the minor engagements fought on the way. 
But Sherman had been advancing through a hos- 
tile country and had to have his supplies constantly 



forwarded to him from Chattanooga, and so, to 
insure receiving them, it was necessary for him as 
he moved ahead to continually leave guards behind 
to defend the road over which the supplies were to 




WILLIAM 



SHERMAN. 



come. This consequently weakened his army 
more and more, so that by the time he reached 
Atlanta he had not many more men with him than 
had Johnston. The latter had foreseen this and in 




Sherman's great march through the heart of the south. 



124 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 




JOHN B. HOOD. 

fact had prolonged his retreat for this very purpose 
of equalizing the two armies. He was therefore 
now ready to fight and was about offering Sher- 
man battle when he was suddenly removed from 
the command by the Confederate government, 
which had become impatient at his allowing Sher- 
man to drive him bacli so far. His place was 
given to General J. B. Hood, a soldier in every re- 
spect his inferior. 

On assuming command Hood at once violently 
attacked Sherman, but was repulsed in each of his 
three assaults (July). By the end of August the 
Union army, after much hard fighting, had made 
its way around to the rear of Atlanta, and on Sep- 
tember 2 the Confederates withdrew from the city 
and it was taken possession of by their oppo- 
nents. Hood then formed the plan of moving 
towards the North with his army in the hope of 
tempting Sherman to follow and so changing the 
scene of war again from Georgia back to Ten- 
nessee. Sherman did pursue him for a short dis- 
tance and then returned to Atlanta, leaving Thomas, 
who was already in Tennessee, to look after Hood. 

The forces of Thomas and Hood were about 
equal, the former having made considerable addi- 
tions in Kentucky and Tennessee to the troops sent 
him by Sherman. The capture of Nashville was 
the first object of the Confederates, but just be- 
fore reaching that city they encountered a part of 
the Northern army under General Schofield. Here 
(at Franklin) a battle was fought, but though Hood's 
loss was serious his progress was not stopped and he 
advanced and began to besiege Nashville. Scarce- 
ly was the siege fairly under way when Thomas, who 



was within the city, issued forth, fell upon Hood and 
defeated him so overwhelmingly that his army was 
scattered in every direction and completely disaj)- 
peared (Dec. 15 and 16). Of the seventy-five thou- 
sand veteran soldiers which at the opening of this 
campaign Johnston had about him at Dalton hardly 
a corporal's guard now remained to Hood ; the rest 
were dead, wounded or imprisoned, or else were 
flying for fear of capture before the horsemen of 
Thomas. One of the only two great armies left 
to the Confederacy had entirely melted away. 

When Sherman had once seen Hood well on his 
way towards the North he knew that he had the 
whole Confederacy to pick from, excepting only 
that part of Virginia which was guarded by Lee. 
His own army consisted of sixty thousand tried 
and experienced men, and he understood perfect- 
ly how impossible it would then be to get together 
any fresh body of Southern troops that could with- 
stand him for an hour. The course he decided 
upon in this situation of affairs was to march 
across Georgia to the sea, capture Savannah, and 
then turn and make his way to Virginia so as to 
help Grant finish his work at Richmond. As he 
was in a region which had not yet been ravaged by 
war, and which could therefore readily furnish the 
necessary supplies for the support of his army on 
its march, he destroyed all railroads and telegraphic 
communications behind him so that neither friend 
nor foe could learn of his movements until he had 
carried out at least part of his plans. Nearly a 
month was occupied in reaching Savannah, no re- 
sistance being offered to his progress until, towards 




GEORGE H. THOMAS. 



NEARING THE END. 



1 25 



the end of his journey, he arrived at Fort McAllister, 
erected near the mouth of the Savannah River for 
the defence of the city. This was easily overcome 
in a fifteen minutes' attack and Savannah itself 
soon followed after a siege of only a week (Dec. 21), 
in ample time for Sherman to send the good news 
as "a Christmas present " to Lincoln. This closed 
Sherman's campaign for 1864. It was already near 
the end of the year, and before making any further 
move it was really necessary to give his men the 
rest which their long march had so richly earned for 
them. Accordingly Sherman did not again take 
the field until 1865 had opened. 

Though Savannah was the only port captured by 
the North in 1864, attempts were made upon two of 
the other three which were still in possession of the 
Confederates. The attack on Mobile was so far 
successful as to effectually close it to blockade-run- 
ners. This was accomplished by Farragut's cap- 
turing the two forts which guarded it (August), 
after first defeating and taking the "Tennessee," 
an ironclad ram which with some gunboats had 
been stationed in Mobile Bay to aid the forts in 
defending the city. The other seaport which was 
attempted was Wilmington, and the expedition 
against it was jointly conducted by General But- 





ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 



DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 

ler and Admiral Porter (December) ; but they 
found Fort Fisher, by which it was protected, too 
strong for them. Both of these places (Mobile 
and Wilmington), however, fell into federal hands 
shortly after the beginning of the new year. 

Besides the " Tennessee " the South lost another 
ironclad during 1864. This was the " Albemarle," 
which had been very active that year on the North 
Carolina coast, interfering greatly with Union op- 
erations in that State. It was destroyed one dark 
night in October by a small naval party under the 
leadership of Lieutenant Gushing, who at the risk 
of their own lives blew it up with a torpedo. The 
Confederates also lost that same year their three 
principal privateers, the "Alabama," the " Florida " 
and the "Georgia," all British built and armed, 
and manned chiefly by Englishmen. These had 
done much injury to the commerce of the United 
States, and though others soon took their place 
the disappearance of these three from the high 
seas was a cause of congratulation at the time 
to the North. The British origin of these priva- 
teers and the half sort of protection they received 
in English waters aroused considerable resentment 
against the government of Great Britain, which 
outlasted the war and was not ended until Eng- 
land, as will be seen later on, made good part of 
the damage they had done to American commerce, 



126 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



THE RETURN OF PEACE. 



On February i, 1865, Sherman left Savannah and 
started north towards Virginia. He had nearly- 
reached Goldsboro in North Carolina when he was 
confronted by his old enemy, Johnston, who had 
been summoned from his retirement and who had 
hastily got together an army of forty thousand men 
to try to stem the federal advance. This army was 



and during that pause the conquest of Richmond! 
was completed. 

Grant had been steadily at work strengthening 
and extending his line about Petersburg and Rich- 
mond, keeping Lee no less busy in guarding the de- 
fences of those cities. But as Grant's line crept 
slowly around, Lee found it harder and harder with 




THE HOUSE WHERE GENERAL LEE SURRENDERED. 



made up principally of the garrisons of such sea- 
board towns as still belonged to the Confederates 
and which, left thus defenceless by the departure of 
those who had been protecting them, now quickly 
fell into Northern hands. Johnston threw his whole 
force against Sherman (March 19) in so sharp an 
attack that at first the chances seemed in favor of 
his winning the victory, but Sherman finally beat 
him off and entered Goldsboro. There the Union 
army paused to await the arrival of more troops. 



his smaller army to properly oppose it. When there- 
fore, early in March, Sheridan brought his cavalry 
up from the Shenandoah valley to assist Grant by 
operating on the western side of Richmond, Lee 
was unable to offer any adequate resistance, and 
Sheridan, by destroying the railroad, canal andr 
bridges between Lynchburg and the Confederate: 
capital, was able to still further reduce the supplies 
of Lee and so embarrass him yet more seriously.. 
Sheridan then joined Grant, who thereupon pushed 



THE RETURN OF PEACE. 



127 



his line another step to the west. Lee met it, but 
to do so he had to again wealcen his force, which was 
already weak enough, and this last drain upon it 
proved a disastrous one. In the game which these 
two great commanders were playing the superior 
numbers of Grant were bound to count. He had 
now one hundred thousand men to Lee's fifty thou- 
sand, the latter drawn out in a thin line to defend 
the fortifications which Grant was hourly threaten- 



overtook him, and on April 9. at a little place on the 
Lynchburg road called Appomattox Court House, 
Lee tendered his sword to Grant. Seventeen days 
later Johnston made a similar surrender to Sherman 
at Raleigh and in the course of the few following 
weeks the rest of the Confederacy had laid down its 
arms and the four years' struggle was over. The 
United States had ceased to be a divided nation and 
the whole country was one again. 

While the North was still celebrating the fall of 




THE SURRENDER OF GENERAL LEE. 



The time for the final move had at last come. 
Grant advanced his entire army against Lee's en- 
trenchments, attacking them simultaneously at 
every point (April 2). Such a united assault the 
Confederates were powerless to withstand, and their 
line broke and gave way. Seeing the hopelessness 
of any further effort to save the city he had so long 
shielded, Lee drew off his army in the night towards 
the west, and on April 3 the Union flag was again 
raised over Richmond. Lee did not retreat far. 
Grant had at once hastened after him and soon 



Richmond and the surrender of Lee, and before the 
opportunity was given it to add Johnston's submis- 
sion to its jubilation, its rejoicing was suddenly 
stopped and in an instant turned into mourning 
by news of the murder of Lincoln. The martyr 
President, who had safely led his people through the 
perils and horrors of civil war, had but barely 
entered upon a second term of office, to which he 
had been elected by an overwhelming majority of the 
people, when his life was cut short by the bullet of 
an assassin. His death was the result of a conspir- 



128 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



acy formed by a number of persons in Washington 
and its vicinity, who thought that by killing the 
leading members of the administration the federal 
government would be thrown into a confusion that 
might give the Confederacy another hope of pro- 
longing its existence. The head of the conspiracy 
was an actor, J. Wilkes Booth, and he it was who 
shot Lincoln in the presence of the audience of a 



No Confederate leader, it is believed, was in any 
way connected with this crime. 

The tragic end of Lincoln's life gave an emphasis 
to his virtues and to the services he had rendered 
his countrymen during the period of their great 
trial such as perhaps nothing else would have done. 
No other of our great Presidents had had so few nat- 
ural advantages in their youth to help fit them for 




RICHMOND, THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL, ENTERED BY THE UNION ARMY. 



public theatre in Washington on the evening of 
April 14, 1865. Lincoln lived but a few hours, dying 
early on the following day. Fortunately his was the 
only life lost. The misfortune was that the one life 
sacrificed should have chanced to be his. The con- 
spiracy, with this great exception, miserably failed. 
The only other person injured was the Secretary of 
State, William H. Seward, who was slightly wound- 
ed but who fully recovered. Booth was pursued and 
in the pursuit was shot and killed ; four of his as- 
sociates were hung and four of them sent to prison. 



the high office they were afterwards chosen to fill. 
Not one of them began his duties amid so many 
difficulties and perplexities. With unwavering pa- 
tience and industry, with never-failing charity and 
tenderness, with profound sagacity and wisdom, he 
unravelled the tangle before him, united the man> 
different factions of the North, touched and held 
the hearts of the people, carried them with him and 
was borne up by them through the dark days of the 
great war. We can conceive of no American except- 
ing the great Washington who could for a single 



THE RETURN OF PEACE 



129 



hour have taken the place or done the work of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

The death of Lincoln raised to the presidency 
for the third time the Vice-President. Up to the 
outbreak of the Civil War, Andrew Johnson, the 
new President, had been a Democrat. He had 
been born in North Carolina, but before reaching 
manhood had removed to Tennessee. That State, 
in addition to making him her Governor, had sent 
him to Congress as a Representative for ten years 
and as a Senator for five years. Though he was a 
Southern Democrat he was a Unionist and was the 
only Senator who refused to follow his State when 
it seceded. He had done good service during the 
war as Military Governor of Tennessee, and it was 
in appreciation of this and of his exceptional loy- 
alty, as well as in recognition of the support given 
the federal government by other war Democrats, 
that the Republicans had placed his name with 
Lincoln's on their ticket in 1864. Their opponents 
at that election were General McClellan and George 
H. Pendleton, nominated on a Democratic platform 
which declared the war to be a failure and that it 
ought to be stopped. In this the North did not 
agree with them and they received very few votes. 
The seceding States of course took no part in that 
election. 

The total number of men who were engaged in 
the war was about four millions, two-thirds on the 
Northern side and one-third on the Southern. 
The number of lives lost was in the neighborhood 
of six hundred thousand, pretty evenly divided be- 
tween the two parties in the struggle. Of these 
less than one-half were killed in battle or died from 





LINCOLN MONUMENT, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 

wounds received in battle. The others were car- 
ried off by camp diseases (which are always more 
fruitful sources of death in warfare than sword or 
gun) or else died in prison. These were the direct 
losses. But undoubtedly many others have since 
passed away whose friends could trace the begin- 
ning of impaired health to the exposures and suf- 
ferings undergone on the march or in the trench. 

The United States government paid out nearly 
eight hundred millions of dollars during the course 
of the war and owed at its close nearly three thou- 
sand millions more. In addition to this the North- 
ern States, cities and towns spent money freely in 
raising, equipping and transporting troops, and 
many individuals contributed largely from their 
private means in providing comforts for the sol- 
diers on the field or in the hospital. How much 
was spent by the Confederate government or peo- 
ple is not known, and we cannot even guess, with 
any approach to accuracy, at the value of the 
property destroyed during the struggle. All that 
we do know is that the total cost of the war in one 
way or another to the country at large was simply 
enormous. But vast as this expenditure was there 
are few Americans to-day who would hesitate in 



130 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



saying that lives and money were both well spent 
in preserving the Union ; and there are probably 
now as many men in the South as in the North who 
are heartily glad that the failure of secession in- 
volved the extinction of slavery. 

Before the conflict was decided and while the 
war was still in progress, the number of States 
was enlarged by the admission of West Virginia 
and Nevada. The first of these had formed the 
northwestern part of Virginia and was a mountain- 
ous region, which had been settled principally by 
emigrants from Ohio and in which there was little 
slave-holding. It had opposed the secession move- 
ment and had refused to be bound by the ordi- 



nance when that was adopted by the rest of Vir- 
ginia, but had remained loyal to the Union and 
had set up a State government of its own. This 
Congress soon recognized by giving it (in 1863) the 
full privileges of statehood. Nevada had been a 
portion of the territory ceded with California by 
Mexico in 1848. The discovery of its silver mines 
in 1858 had attracted many people there, and this, 
induced Congress in 1864 to make of it a State. 
Its importance lies almost entirely in its great min- 
eral wealth, as its soil is too dry for agriculture. 
Its growth has been slow and its population since 
its admission has remained the smallest of any of 
the States. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH. 



After a review before their commanders and 
the officers of the government in Washington which 
lasted two days, the armies of the United States 
in the summer of 1865 were disbanded and the 
men went back to their homes to resume the occu- 
pations which they had laid aside when they took 
up arms. Fifty thousand of them, however, were 
retained for a while longer in service to preserve 
order in the Southern States, which were naturally 
in a very disturbed condition resulting from their 
having so long been the scene of war. As soon as 
the discharge of the soldiers had been seen to, the 
President and Congress were at liberty to devote 
themselves to the many other matters which were 
pressing upon their attention for early settlement. 

Among the most important questions thus to be 
considered and determined were those in regard to 
the national debt, the rights of the freed men (or 
negroes who had formerly been slaves) and the gov- 
ernment of the States which had seceded. The first 
of these was settled with the least difficulty. It was 
decided to pay off the debt as rapidly as possible 
by continuing the high taxes established during 
the war and which, now that there were no war ex- 
penses, would yield a revenue much more than 
sufficient for the ordinary needs of government, 
and by applying the surplus to diminishing the 
debt. This has steadily been done until now (1889) 
nearly two-thirds of the great sum of money bor- 
rowed by the United States has been repaid to 
those who loaned it. 

The other two matters were closely connected to- 



gether and were not so easily arranged. The prob- 
lems to be solved were how to protect the negroes in 
the enjoyment of the freedom that had been given 
to them and how to restore to the Southern States 
their share in the government of the country with- 
out again putting in peril all that the North had been 
contending for. The North had been fighting to 
keep the South in the Union and it had succeeded 
It was content with this and had no wish, now that 
the war was over, to punish anyone connected with 
it. When Lee and Johnston surrendered they were 
not put under arrest, but were allowed to return 
with their men to their homes on simply giving 
their word that they would fight no more. Other 
officers and soldiers were treated with equal gener- 
osity. No member of the Confederate Cabinet was 
taken to task for his part in bringing about the re- 
bellion. Even the head and chief originator of the 
secession, Jefferson Davis, though he was detained 
for a time at Fortress Monroe, was soon released 
and has since remained at perfect liberty. No per- 
son was punished for treason ; no one was even tried 
for it. Every one, high or low, and without regard 
to his share in the rebellion, has had the same free- 
dom of action since the war closed as he had when 
it began. 

But while the North had no revenge to gratify 
and no disposition to e.xact penalties from those it 
had defeated, it did not propose to lose the benefits 
of the victories it had won by readmitting the Con- 
federates to all their political privileges without any 
pledges from them. Some guarantees were required 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH. 



131 



that the South would accept the issues settled by 
the war and not try to reopen them. This was felt 
to be particularly necessary for the sake of the 
negroes. The South had wished to keep them 
slaves and naturally would not regard with much 
favor their present condition of freedom, and it 
was feared that, if left to themselves, some of the 
Southern States might seek to reduce them again 
to bondage or to something at least very nearly 
like it. 

On this subject President Johnson and Congress 
held decidedly different opinions. Though he was 
a strong Union man, the President 
was a Southerner and did not care 
much about the freedmen, but he 
was an earnest believer in State 
rights. His theory was that the 
Southern States had never been out 
of the Union because they had not 
been allowed to leave it, and that 
their (white) citizens had the same 
right to vote, hold office and exercise 
their other political powers now that 
they had always had. He was there- 
fore an advocate of allowing the 
Confederates to at once resume their 
full share in the government with- 
out imposing any conditions upon 
them. In accordance with these 
ideas he, immediately after taking 
office, appointed provisional govern- 
ors of the Southern States who called 
conventions composed only of white 
men to reorganize their State gov- 
ernments. These conventions re- 
pealed the ordinances of secession 
which had been adopted in i860 
and 1861 ; ratified the Thirteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution 
which abolished slavery (and which 
the Northern States had accepted 
earlier in the same year) ; and agreed never to pay 
any debt which had been contracted in aiding the 
Confederacy. On this basis all of the Southern 
States became reorganized during 1865. 

Congress did not dispute that the Southern States 
were still in the Union ; on that point it agreed with 
Johnson. What it did claim was that the Confed- 
erates had voluntarily given up all their political 
rights when they rebelled, and that these rights 
must be restored to them before they could again 
use them. And Congress was determined not to 
restore these rights until it was satisfied that the 
freedmen would receive ample protection. 



This resolve was strengthened by the course pur- 
sued by the Southern States after their reconstruc- 
tion on Johnson's plan. Fearing that the ex-slaves- 
would not work now that they had no one to com- 
pel them to, and that they would become a burden 
for the white people to support, these States enact- 
ed laws condemning all idle negroes to prison and to- 
hard labor. The North considered this as something 
but little better than slavery under another name 
and it refused to recognize the State governments 
which had been thus formed with the President's 
approval, and the Senators and Representatives 




ANDREW JOHNSON. 

whom they sent to Washington were denied admit- 
tance by the Republican majority in control of Con- 
gress. 

Congress wished to secure permanently for the 
negroes the privilege of voting, and it wished to 
withhold this privilege from the Confederates, or at 
least from the prominent ones. In this way, and 
this way only, it thought, could the freedmen defend 
themselves from oppression by their former masters. 
With the ballot in their hands they could control 
legislation and so look after their own interests. 
The political power of the South would be trans- 
ferred from the disloyal whites to the loyal blacks. 



132 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



•who would be in sympathy with their RepubHcan 
friends of the North, and all danger would be re- 
moved of any further difficulties between the two 
races or between the two sections of the country. 
It was some time before Congress could mature a 
plan for best carrying this idea into effect, but it 
finally did so early in 1867. Johnson vigorously 
opposed the measure, but the Republicans were able 
to pass it over his veto by the two-thirds majority 
in each branch of Congress required by the Consti- 
tution. 

The plan of Congress provided for the formation 
•of entirely new State governments in the South and 
the adoption of another Amendment to the Con- 
stitution. This Amendment (which made the Four- 
teenth) gave the right to vote to all negroes and 
took it away from all Confederates who had held 
any important position in the United States army 
■or na\% in the federal government or in their States 
before the war. Congress, however, was given 
power to restore their political rights to those now 
deprived of them whenever it should see fit to do so 
by a two-thirds vote. The Amendment also pledged 
the people that the national debt should be paid in 
full and that no part of the Confederate debt should 
■ever be acknowledged or redeemed. If the South- 
■ern States ratified this Amendment and organized 
governments satisfactory to Congress, then Con- 
;gress would recognize them and admit their Sena- 
tors and Representatives. But these governments' 
must be formed by conventions in whose selection all 
freedmen (and no prominent Confederates) should 
have a voice. To insure this the President was 
■authorized to appoint military governors, who were 
to supervise the election of the delegates and see 
that the negroes had the opportunity of voting and 
that the Confederate leaders were prevented from 
•doing so. 

Southern whites did not much relish this plan, as 
they thought it placed the blacks who had once been 
their slaves too nearly in the position of now be- 
coming their masters. But it was adopted, and in 
the course of 1867 and 1868 was accepted by all but 
four of the States lately in secession. The four 
exceptions were Virginia, Texas, Mississippi and 
Georgia, which all stood out against it until 1S70 
and were therefore without representation in Con- 
gress during this period. One State, Tennessee, 
had not waited for this action of Congress before 
remodelling her government in accordance with 
Northern ideas, and she had been readmitted in 
1866, while Congress was still engaged in consider- 
ing a scheme for the admission of the others. 

The result of the Fourteenth Amendment and of 



the legislation which accompanied it was to give 
the control of affairs in the South to a body of very 
ignorant and very inexperienced voters. That they 
would not use their power very wisely at first might 
have been expected, and the condition of the 
Southern States for a number of years after the war 
was anything but prosperous. Matters, however, 
have since then gradually, if slowly, improved. 
The negroes have learned that freedom does not 
mean idleness and that they have only their own 
labor to depend upon for their support. More of 
them are becoming educated and all of them are 
becoming more industrious. From time to time 
Congress has removed their disabilities from the 
Confederates and now Jefferson Davis remains the 
only one who cannot exercise all the political privi- 
leges he once enjoyed, and without doubt they would 
also be restored to him should he apply for them. 
The Confederates who have thus been received back 
into citizenship were those best qualified to lead in 
the arts of peace as well as in the arts of war, and 
under their guidance their part of the country has 
developed in many directions and with a rapidity 
unknown in its earlier history. But before this new 
era of prosperity began in the South it suffered 
much from poverty and the ignorantly framed laws 
enacted by the freedmen in their first days of 
power. 

The disagreement between Johnson and Congress 
regarding the treatment of the South soon extend- 
ed to other questions and constantly grew more 
bitter. Each viewed every act of the other with 
hostility and suspicion. The President attempted 
to thwart the will of Congress by vetoing (or refus- 
ing to approve or sign) bills which it passed, but this 
was of little benefit to him and of little harm to the 
Republicans, as their two-thirds majority in each 
house enabled them to dispense with his signature 
to any measure upon which they were united and 
which they really cared should become a law. One 
of these bills was the " tenure-of-office " act, pro- 
hibiting the President from removing any high of- 
ficial in the government service unless the Senate 
consented. This became a law in the same month 
that the reconstruction act was passed, March, 1867. 
Johnson refused to obey it on the ground that the 
Constitution had given the President the right of 
removal and that Congress had no power to take 
the right away. Accordingly not long afterwards 
he dismissed Edwin M. Stanton, who had been the 
Secretary of War since the beginning of Lincoln's 
administration. For this, as well as for some other 
acts which it considered contrary to law, the House 
of Representatives resolved to impeach him. 



RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH. 



'33: 



The Constitution makes it the duty of the lower 
branch of Congress, when it believes that any im- 
portant member of the government has disobeyed 
the law or been unfaithful to his trust, to accuse 
him of his offences before the Senate, which then 
regularly tries him very much as other offenders are 
tried in courts. This is called impeachment. John- 
son is the only President of the United States who 



with political troubles. It gave attention as well to- 
foreign affairs. Among these was a difficulty not 
with, but in, Mexico. 

Taking advantage of the disturbances in the 
United States caused by the Civil War, France in 
the early part of that struggle had sent an army 
into Mexico, overthrown its republican government, 
converted it into a monarchy and placed the Archr- 



/ 




EDWIN M. STANTON. 



has been impeached, though one or two other of- 
ficials, less eminent than a President, have been. 
In the case of Johnson the proceedings lasted near- 
ly four months (from February to May, 1868) and 
resulted in his acquittal, as not quite two-thirds of 
the Senators were convinced of his guilt. A change 
of a single vote, however, would have deposed him 
from his office. 

But this administration was not entirely occupied 



duke Maximilian on the throne. Our govern- 
ment had strongly protested against this as a viola- 
tion of the principles of the Monroe doctrine, but 
it was then too busily engaged in fighting its own 
battles to back up its protest with armed force. 
France had paid no heed to our objections. She 
believed, as did also Great Britain at the time, that 
the rebellion was on too large a scale to be sup- 
pressed ; that the Confederacy would succeed in es- 



134 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



tablishing itself ; that the Union would be perma- 
nently broken up; and that, when it had become 
■divided and the war was ended, neither fragment 
would be able, even if it should care, to interfere 
with her. She therefore kept her soldiers in Mex- 
ico to uphold Maximilian in his efforts to rule that 
•country against the will of its people. 

Events did not turn out exactly as France had an- 
ticipated. She found that the federal government 
had the strength to stop secession and crush rebel- 
lion, and so, when the war was over, she became 
much more ready to listen to arguments on the ap- 
plication of the Monroe doctrine than she had been 
in 1863, and on our renewed demand in 1867 she 
recalled her troops to France. At his own desire 
Maximilian was left behind to see if he could gov- 
ern without the aid of foreign bayonets. The 
United States had no objections to make to this. 
If the Mexicans desired him for their emperor they 
were welcome to him, as long as no European power 
attempted to compel them to retain him. But 
they did not want him. As soon as his French pro- 
tectors were gone, he was attacked, defeated, cap- 
tured and shot, and Mexico again became a repub- 
lic. 

Another foreign matter and one of a pleasanter 
■character was also arranged at this time. This was 
the purchase from Russia in 1867 of Alaska for 
seven millions and two hundred thousand dollars. 
Alaska is the last of the accessions made to the 
territory' of the United States and increased its area 
nearly six hundred thousand square miles. The size 
of our country is now more than four times what it 
was at the close of the Revolutionary War. It was 
then about eight hundred thousand square miles. 
The Louisiana cession added a little over a million. 



Florida about sixty thousand, Texas nearly four 
hundred thousand and the Mexican grant not quite 
five hundred and fifty thousand, so that the total 
number of square miles now included within it is a 
trifle over three millions and six hundred thousand. 

During the same year that Alaska was bought 
and Maximilian put to death the thirty-seventh 
State entered the Union. Nebraska, like so many 
of the other Western States, had been part of the 
Louisiana purchase and had been organized into a 
Territory by itself at the time of the heated anti- 
slavery contest for the possession of Kansas (1854). 
Its growth, however, had not been nearly as rapid 
as was that of its sister Territory, as it had been ex- 
plored but little and no one then even suspected 
that the fertility and richness of its soil would soon 
make it one of the most productive of the Ameri- 
can States. 

The last, but by no means the least important, 
event to be noted in this period is the connecting 
of Europe with America by telegraph. Efforts to 
accomplish this had been tried many times before 
but they had all failed. In 1857 a telegraphic cable 
was drawn across the bottom of the Atlantic which 
at first, it was thought, would prove a success. But 
it did not work satisfactorily, nor did the others that 
followed it until in 1866 the difficulties were over- 
come and one was laid which has operated as per- 
fectly as its predecessors on land had done. This 
has since then been supplemented by others, and 
there are now a number of lines between the two 
continents, so that quick international communi- 
cation is not subject to the risk of accident to any 
one wire. The commercial and political benefit that 
this extension of Morse's invention has been to 
both countries it is hardly necessary to point out. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT. 



Johnson's quarrel with Congress brought him 
great unpopularity and when his term drew towards 
a close he did not obtain even a nomination for 
continuance in office. On March 4, 1869, he was 
succeeded in the presidency by General Grant, whom 
the Republicans easily elected over the Democratic 
.candidate, Horatio Seymour, who had lately been 
Governor of New York. 

A native of Ohio, Grant received at his birth the 
mame of Hiram Ulysses, but by a mistake he was 



entered as Ulysses S. when he began his military 
career as a cadet at West Point, and he found it so 
difficult afterwards to have this official record al-,- 
tered that he was constrained to use for the rest of 
his life a name thus thrust upon him by accident. 
He remained in the army for a few years after 
graduating from West Point, rising to the positioa 
of Captain during the course of the Mexican war, 
and then resigned his commission to enter into 
business. When the Civil War began he was living 



THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT. 



135 



in Illinois and he at once offered his sen'ices to the 
government. They were accepted and from the 
start he met with almost unbroken success and 
steadily rose in rank from that of Colonel to that of 
General, the latter title being one which Washing- 
ton alone had borne before and which has since 
been bestowed upon only two others, Sherman and 
Sheridan. 

Two months after the inauguration of Grant the 
Central Pacific Railroad, connecting California with 
the East, and which had been building since 1862, 
was completed and thrown open to the public. 
This was an event of hardly less value than the lay- 
ing of the Atlantic cable a year or two previous 
had been. It brought San Francisco and New York 
nearer together than Boston and Washington had 
been sixty years before and has been of the same 
helpfulness in the development of the extreme 
West that the first steamboats and railroads were 
in settling the Mississippi region in the early part 
of the centurj'. Other Pacific roads have since 
been built, north and south of the first one, so 



the country during the first few years following the 
war. It was a prosperity in which nearly everyone, 
at least in the North and West, had a share. Crop 
failures in Europe gave a good market to our agri- 




HORATIO SEYMUUR. 



cultural products. The heavy taxation retained for 
the purpose of reducing the national debt stimu- 
lated manufactures. Gold and silver mines yielded 




ON THE CENTRAL PACIFIC KAILROAD. 



that there are now ample means of communication 
between the two oceans. 

The completion of the Central Pacific was only 
one sign of a general prosperity which spread over 



a large quantity of the precious metals. Immigra- 
tion, which had fallen off during the war, became 
greater than ever and helped to people the interior 
of the continent with a class of settlers who in the 



136 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



i 



main not only knew how to work but who were 
only too glad to use the opportunities for well-paid 
labor offered them by the great republic. 

What Grant's administration will probably always 
be most closely associated with is the substitution 
for the first time in history of arbitration in the 
place of war as a means of settling a serious differ- 
ence between nations. The United States had a 
grievance against Great Britain for the sympathy 
shown by the latter with the Confederates in the 
opening years of the rebellion. With few excep- 
tions the ruling classes in England and their lead- 
ers hoped and believed that the North would be 
defeated and the Union divided, and they had little 
hesitancy in freely saying so. Had this sympathy 
been limited to words, our government would have 
had no ground for formal complaint, however keen- 
ly it felt the want of friendliness thus displayed. 
But the sympathy extended beyond words. For 
though no open aid was given to the Confederates 
they were permitted to purchase vessels in Great 
Britain, and arm and equip them in English har- 
bors for privateer service, and this we claimed was 
a violation of the law of nations and rendered the 
British government liable for the damage inflicted 
by these vessels upon American commerce. 

England was not disposed to admit the claim and 
the question was discussed by the two countries 
for a number of years before any agreement could 
be reached. Then a treaty was signed at Washing- 
ton in 1871 which provided among other things 
that this matter should be submitted to five judges 
and each side bound itself to abide by their decis- 
ion. These judges or arbitrators were to be ap- 
pointed one each by the Emperor of Brazil, the 
President of the Swiss Confederation, the King of 
Italy, the Queen of England and the President of 
the United States. They met at Geneva in 1872 
and the whole subject was carefully considered, 
the facts in the case examined and established and 
the views of each party in the controversy argued 
at length before them. The conclusion they arrived 
at was favorable to the American government and 
fifteen and a half millions of dollars was fixed up- 
on as the amount of the damage that the United 
States were justly entitled to, and this sum was ac- 
cordingly paid over to us by Great Britain. 

It ought to be said in this connection, however, 
that sympathy with the South was by no means uni- 
versal in England. While nearly all of those who 
governed the country were arrayed on the side 
of the slave-owners, the great body of the common 
people, the middle classes and the workingmen, be- 
lieved heartily that the North was in the right and 



that it must and would win in the stupendous 
struggle that was convulsing the country; and they 
did not suffer themselves to be moved from this be- 
lief or to be stirred from the side of free labor for 
which the Unionists were lighting, though they had 
almost the strongest reason that men can ever have 
for wishing that the war was over or that it had 
never been begun. For to many of them the war 
meant starvation. It shut out the raw cotton from 
Great Britain. This compelled the mills in which 
the cotton was manufactured to close. The clos- 
ing of the factories threw their hands out of work, 
and want of work was want of food. But their 
own sufferings did not deter them from advocat- 
ing the cause of the North and remaining its 
true and loyal friends, and it was their influence, 
voiced by only a few leaders, like John Bright, 
Thomas Hughes and Richard Cobden, which had 
held back the English government from publicly 
recognizing the Confederacy as an independent na- 
tion. 

The Washington treaty not only disposed of the 
"Alabama" claims but it also settled the last 
boundary dispute which has arisen between the 
two countries, that affecting the extreme north- 
western point of the United States (between Van- 
couver's Island and the State of Washington). 
This was also decided in our favor. But we did not 
fare so well in the third matter arranged by this 
same treaty, which had relation to the damages due 
Great Britain for American fishing in Canadian 
waters. As in the "Alabama" claims, the deter- 
mination of the question was left to arbitrators, 
and they awarded the English government five and 
a half millions of dollars. 

Before the treaty of Washington was signed an- 
other Amendment to the Constitution was proposed, 
and ratified by the people (1870). It forbids any 
State to deprive a citizen of the privilege of voting- 
or of any other right on account of " his race, color 
or previous condition of servitude," and was in- 
tended to make still more secure the freedom and 
liberty of the negroes. It is the last Constitutional 
Amendment which has been adopted and is num- 
bered the fifteenth. 

Grant's administration lasted for eight years, but 
the prosperity which marked its opening did not 
continue with it till the end. In 1871 there was a 
great fire in Chicago, followed in 1872 by one nearly 
as disastrous in Boston, in each of which a large part 
of the city was burnt and many millions of dollars* 
worth of property destroyed. The next year (1873) 
a financial panic occurred which produced great 
distress and a business depression of which the ef- 



THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT. 



137 



feet was felt for some years. This was attributed 
to several causes, the principal one being the same 
as that which led to the panic in 1857, too rapid 
railroad building in the West. But there were 
other reasons for it as well, excessive speculation, 
■overproduction of manufactures and the inflated 
prices for goods of all kinds which had been main- 
tained since the war. The panic was really a re- 
action against these prices and resulted in very 
much lessening them. 

In addition to these commercial and industrial 
misfortunes there arose also considerable political 
■discontent. General Grant's appointments to office 
were not always thought to be very wise ones even 
by members of his own party. A number of cases 
of dishonesty in prominent officials were discovered 
before his first term ended, and created a feeling of 
■dissatisfaction in many Republicans. Others among 
those who had ortce been his adherents disapproved 
of the policy of employing federal troops any longer 
in the South for the protection of the negroes. 
They held that even if the negroes were ill-treated 




were the Northern States. When, therefore, the 
Republicans renominated General Grant in 1873, a 
section of the party, calling themselves Liberal Re- 
publicans, named Horace Greeley, the editor of the 
New York Tribune, for the presidency and the 
Democrats accepted him also as their candidate. 




HORACE GREELEY. 

and prevented from voting, as in some cases they 
undoubtedly were, it was the duty of the State and 
not of the national government to correct such 
evils ; and that the Southern States, having been re- 
constructed and readmitted, should now be left to 
themselves and treated in all respects exactly as 



TRIBUNE BUILDING, NEW YORK CITV. 

The movement, however, was a failure and General 
Grant was given another term. 

His second term witnessed the beginning of a 
series of centennial celebrations of Revolutionary 
battles and of events connected with the gaining of 
our independence and the organizing of our govern- 
ment which have been continued through the ad- 
ministrations of the four Presidents who have fol- 
lowed him. Beginning with the one hundredth 
anniversary of the fight at Lexington on April 19, 
1875, the successive steps' in the struggle of the 
young nation towards freedom and unity have been 
recalled and fitly honored and commemorated. 
Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown, as each came 
round, were gratefully remembered and observed; 
but the two celebrations into which the whole 
people have most heartily entered have been those 
which marked the throwing aside of the English 
rule and the adoption in its stead of the Constitu- 
tional one. On July 4, 1876, the centennial of the 
Declaration of Independence was greeted with re- 
joicing in every village, town and city throughout 
the land; on April 30, 1889, the one hundredth 



138 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



anniversary of the inauguration of Washington as 
the first President of the United States was made 
a special national holiday that every one might have 
an opportunity of showing in some way his appreci- 
ation of the blessings which a century of union and 
freedom had brought to the people. In New York 
particularly was this latter day made one of great 
festivity and splendid display, as it was in that city 
that the federal government had begun its existence. 
Besides the processions, orations and monuments 
with which these centennial anniversaries were 
marked, an exposition was held at Philadelphia in 
1876, to which all the world was invited to contrib- 
ute examples of their products and manufactures 
that an opportunity might be afforded of comparing 
the progress made in our short history with that of 
other nations and of displaying the wonderful re- 
sources of this country. The exposition was open 



for six months and during that period the large 
buildings erected for the purpose were daily 
thronged with great crowds gathered from every 
quarter of the globe who had come to examine the 
myriad objects on exhibition. 

Shortly before Grant retired from office the 
thirty-eighth State was admitted to the Union 
(1876). Colorado takes its name from the principal 
river flowing through its western territory', and was 
formed by uniting a portion of the old Louisiana 
tract to part of the Mexican grant. Its gold and 
silver mines led to its first settlement, and its wealth 
thus far has been derived chiefly from its mineral 
resources. Of late, however, the raising of cattle 
for market has become an important industry in 
Colorado, for which it is excellently adapted as 
much of its land is better adapted for grazing than 
for any other purpose. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

MR. HAYES'S ADMINISTRATION. 



The most closely contested election in American 
history was that for Grant's successor. The oppos- 




RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 

ing candidates were R. B. Hayes on the Republican 
side and S. J. Tilden on the Democratic. There 



was no one question dividing the people at the 
time, as slavery or the tariff had on other occasions ; 
the platforms of the two parties were pretty much 
the same ; and the struggle between them was sim- 
ply one for possession of the government. Their 
strength was very nearly equal. The Republicans 
had lost the large majorities with which a few years 
before they had carried every election, most of the 
war Democrats who for a while had acted with them 
having returned to their former allegiance, and a 
number of moderate Republicans having also left 
their party on account of the scandals connected with 
Grant's administration and its policy in the South. 
The Democrats liad regained control of nearly all of 
the Southern States and of some of the Northern 
ones as well. In 1874 they secured the lower branch 
of Congress. When 1876 arrived they were in an 
excellent position, they thought, to once more ob- 
tain the presidency. 

When the election was over it was found that 
|each candidate had received nearly the same num- 
ber of votes and for quite a time the result was 
in a great deal of doubt. Both sides claimed 
to have carried certain Southern States, and the 
votes of these States were necessary to give either 
Mr. Hayes or Mr. Tilden a majority. Congress 
was not able to decide the question, as neither the 
Republican Senate nor Democratic House would 



MR. HAYES'S ADMINISTRATION. 



139 



consent to awarding the presidency to its political 
opponent. After many plans for solving the diffi- 
culty had been suggested and thrown aside, the 
leaders of the two parties agreed to submit the dis- 
puted votes to a special tribunal to be created for 
the purpose. This tribunal or court was named the 
" Electoral Commission " and was composed of five 
Senators, five Representatives and five judges of 
the Supreme Court. The various points at issue 
about the election were laid before it and by a vote 
of eight to seven were determined in favor of Mr. 
Hayes, who accordingly in 1877 became the nine- 
teenth President of the United States. 

Rutherford B. Hayes was a native and resident 
of Ohio and served with distinction through the 
entire course of the Civil War. At its close he en- 
tered the lower branch of Congress and after re- 
maining there for one term (two years) was chosen 
governor of his State. To this position he was 
subsequently twice reelected, and it was to the 
popularity he gained as Ohio's chief magistrate 
that he owed his presidential nomination by the 
Republicans. 

Almost his first act on taking office was to with- 
draw the federal troops from the Southern States, 
thus placing them on the same footing as was the 
North. He had promised this in his inaugural ad- 
dress and he lost no time in making good his word. 
Though this did not remove the last trace of the 
war, it destroyed the last outward sign of Southern 
subjection to the North, and it greatly helped to 
restore a cordial feeling between the two sections. 
The two parts of the country have steadily drawn 
nearer together since that day and are now united 
by a much stronger bond than at any other time in 
their history since the beginning of the great anti- 
slavery controversy nearly seventy years ago. 

With one exception the administration of Presi- 
dent Hayes was a very peaceful one. The excep- 
tion occurred during the first year of his term, in 
the summer of 1S77, and was occasioned by a gen- 
eral lowering of the wages of railroad employes 
throughout the country. The men resisted this re- 
duction, left the employment of the railroad com- 
panies and attempted to prevent others from taking 
their places and trains from being run. This 
caused disturbances and riots in several States, the 
most serious ones breaking out in Pennsylvania, 
particularly at Pittsburg. Order was not restored 
until the aid of State militia, in some instances also 
of United States soldiers, had been obtained, and 
before this was done some millions of dollars' worth 
of property had been destroyed and a hundred and 
fifty or more lives lost. 



In national politics the matters of most interest 
in this period are connected with finance: silver 
was made a legal tender, a large part of the public 
debt was refunded, and specie payments were re- 
sumed. When the government was suddenly called 
upon in 1861 and 1862 to meet the great expenses 
of the war, it did so partly by increasing the taxes, 
partly by borrowing money for wh'ch it gave its 
bonds, and partly by issuingpaper money with which 
it paid some of its expenses instead of with gold. 
This paper money was issued in large quantities 
both by the government and by national banks es- 
tablished under authority of the government. As 
the paper money was only a promise to pay a 
certain amount of gold at some indefinite time in 
the future, it was of course of less value than the gold 
itself, and it quickly drove gold out of circulation. 




SAMUEL J. TILDEM. 

From 1S62 to 1879 specie (or coin) payments were 
suspended and the money affairs of the nation were 
conducted with paper currency. By 1879 the gov- 
ernment found itself in a prosperous enough con- 
dition again to fulfil its promises, and accordingly 
it then announced itself prepared to redeem with 
coin all the paper money presented at the national 
treasury for payment, and holders of government 
notes or of bank bills have since that year been able 
at any time to exchange them for gold. 

The uniform promptness with which the govern- 
ment had paid the interest on its bonds and the un- 
precedented rapidity with which it had been reduc- 
ing the debt gave it excellent credit and it became 
able to borrow money o'n much better terms than 
in the days of the war. President Hayes's Secretary 
of the Treasury, John Sherman, took advantage 
of this favorable condition to exchange the older 
bonds as they became due for new ones bearing a 



140 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



lower rate of interest, and in this way the country 
has been yearly saved a considerable sum of mon- 
ey. Mr. Sherman's successors have continued his 
policy, and the national debt (that part of it, at least, 
which is still unpaid) has now been all refunded, 
much of it at a rate of interest less than one-half 
of what was paid for the first war loan. 

The resumption of specie payments and the re- 
funding of the public debt were both acts of which 
the President heartily approved. But the third 
financial measure of his administration was adopt- 
ed by Congress against his judgment and over his 
veto. Silver dollars had originally been lawful 
money (or a legal tender for the payment of any 
debt) as well as gold. There had not been many 
of them coined, however, and they had not been 
very generally used, except in small quantities, un- 
til after the American mines had begun to add so 
enormously to the silver productof the world. Then 
the number of them greatly increased and their 
value naturally somewhat lessened, for any object 
as a rule grows less valuable as it becomes more 
plentiful or is more easily procured. But the value 
of silver not only decreased, it also fluctuated or 
varied as the yield of the mines each month was 
more or less. On account of this diminishing and 
unstable value as compared with that of gold. Con- 
gress, in 1873, following the example of many of 
the nations of Europe, demonetized the silver dol- 
lar, or took away its fixed legal tender character, 
so that it became simply an article of merchandise, 
to be bought or sold for the price it was really 
worth. After a five years' trial of gold as the only 
standard money, the people became dissatisfied 
with the change, as they thought the effect was 
chiefly to benefit the rich bondholders by secur- 
ing to them the repayment of their loans to the 
government in gold, and Congress accordingly, in 
obedience to the wish of the people, in 1878, remon- 
etized silver. 

Since Morse thirty years before had shown that 
electricity could be employed in sending messages 
over a wire, many inventors had been engaged in 
trying to find other ways in which this wonderful 



agent could be used. And many had been found 
during these years ; but the most remarkable of all 
was discovered and put into successful operation 
shortly after Mr. Haj'es entered upon his presi- 
dency. The telephone is even a more curious in- 
vention than the telegraph, as it enables people to 
talk with each other at a considerable distance 
apart so that they hear the actual words uttered 
by the speaker and recognize the tones of his 
voice. At first only short distances of a few miles 
were attempted, but more recently it has been ap- 
plied with satisfactory results at points separated by 
several hundred miles. If the telephone can be car- 
ried to the same degree of perfection that the tele- 
graph has reached, it will rival the latter in value 
and usefulness, but it is doubtful if it can ever be 
made to cover as great a number of miles. In the 
meantime it has become one of the greatest of mod- 
ern conveniences and in the cities and larger towns 
few business establishments of any size or impor- 
tance are without telephonic instruments. 

Lighting by electricity quickly followed talking 
by electricity, only a year separating the two dis- 
coveries (1877-78). The electric light has decided 
advantages over any means of illumination pre- 
viously employed, as it not only affords a much 
stronger and clearer light, but in doing so it throws 
out no heat and does not affect the purity of the sur- 
rounding air. It is rapidly replacing gas in the 
streets of cities, in public buildings, and in many 
offices and mercantile houses, but its cost has thus 
far prevented its introduction into private dwell- 
ings except in a few occupied by the wealthier class. 

A beginning was also made at this time in apply- 
ing electricity as a substitute for steam-power in 
operating machinery and in drawing railroad cars. 
While some little progress has been made, it has 
not yet been developed to the same extent in this 
line that it has been in other directions. What 
other services this marvellous force of nature may 
do for man we cannot now even imagine; but we 
may feel certain that there remain undiscovered in- 
numerable ways in which this invisible power will 
be made to minister to our needs and comforts. 



THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE MORMONS. 



141 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE MORMONS. 



On his retiring from office in 1877 General Grant 
had set out on a tour around the world, during 
which he had been received with the highest honors 
and distinction by the people and rulers of the many- 
countries he had visited on his travels. From this 




GENERAL W. S. HANCOCK. 

journey he had but lately returned when in 1880 
Republican delegates met in convention at Chicago 
to choose their candidate to succeed Mr. Hayes, 
and a large and influential number of them made a 
strong effort to obtain the nomination for the great 
General. But since the day Washington had de- 
clined a third election it had been the unwritten 
law that no President should serve for more than 
eight years, and this traditional sentiment proved 
too powerful to be broken even in favor of the hero 
of Vicksburg. and the nomination went to General 
Garfield. In opposition to him the Democrats put 
forward General Winfield S. Hancock, the senior 
Major-General in the army and an officer who had 
won an enviable reputation at Gettysburg. Freder- 
icksburg and on many another battlefield of the war. 
He had had no political experience, however, and 
his opponent had had, and so for this reason the lat- 
ter was preferred by the people for the presidency. 

James A. Garfield is a striking instance, of which 
Lincoln is the greatest but by no means the only 
other example, of a poor boy rising solely by his 



own exertions to the foremost place in our country. 
And it is the glory of America that such a chance is 
given to every lad, if he have the ability within him, 
to gain for himself whatever position he will, with- 
out let or hindrance from any one else. Indeed, 
Americans take the greatest pride in those from 
among themselves who have acquired their fame 
unaided by fortune or influence, but by the exercise 
of their own talents and through their own industry 
and perseverance. 

Born in Ohio in the poorest circumstances and 
left fatherless while still an infant, Garfield's earli- 
est years were spent in a hard struggle to obtain' a 
livelihood. He was obliged to turn to whatever his 
hand found to do — working on a farm, chopping 
wood, driving horses on the tow-path of a canal. 
But in spite of the obstacles in his way he managed 




JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

to get time for study and to fit himself for college. 
After graduation he taught for a while and then be- 
gan the practice of law, but he had hardly secured 
a start in that profession when" the outbreak of the 
Civil War caused him to lay it aside to enter the 



142 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



army. There he had risen to the rank of Major- 
General, when in 1863 he was called from the field 
to Congress. For eighteen years he was continu- 
ously a member of the House of Representatives 
and had just been transferred to the Senate when 
another revolution of the wheel of fortune placed 
him in the White House. 

His administration opened at another period of 
great prosperity to our country, for fortunately 
those periods in our history have been much more 
frequent than times of distress. The census taken 
in the year of his election disclosed a population of 




CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 

over fifty million people within the boundaries of 
the United States, an increase of more than eleven 
millions since the preceding count in 1870 was 
made. The effects of the financial crisis of 1873 
had worn away, leaving business on a sounder 
and healthier basis than ever before. The West- 
ern railroads, whose building had helped bring 
about that panic, were now earning money for their 
owners by carrying supplies to the new settlements in 
the northern interior of the continent and by trans- 
porting the produce of that region to its ocean- 
market. Manufactories were all busy, giving prof- 
table employment to thousands of hands. The 
tide of immigration was larger than ever and some 
of it now was turning towards the South. For the 
.South was sharing in this prosperity as well as the 



West and North and was making more rapid strides 
in material advancement than one would have 
dreamed possible when Lee laid down his arms. 

From the statesmanship he had displayed as a 
Congressman much was hoped from Garfield as a 
President, but unhappily no opportunity was given 
him to show how wise a ruler he could be. For the 
fourth time in their history the American people 
were called upon to lament the death of a Presi- 
dent in oflSce, and for the second time that death 
was by assassination. On July 2, 1S81, as General 
Garfield was standing in a railroad station in Wash- 
ington, he was shot by a disappointed office-seeker 
named Guiteau, and after suffering greatly for more 
than two months, died on September 19 at Elberon, 
N. J., where he had been removed in the hope that 
the cooler sea-air might benefit him. Until almost 
the very hour of his death it was thought that the 
wound might not prove fatal and that possibly he 
would recover. The patience with which he bore 
his sufferings upon his bed of pain heightened the 
admiration in which his character was already held 
by his countrymen and deepened their affectionate 
regard for him, and the day of his funeral was as 
generally observed as a day of mourning as that 
of Lincoln had been. The murderer was arrested 
almost in the very act of shooting, and after the 
death of his victim was tried, convicted and hung 
for the crime. 

Chester A. Arthur, Garfield's Vice-President and 
successor, was indisputably the most able of the 
four men whom accident had placed in the presi- 
dential chair. He was born in Vermont, but most 
of his life was spent in New York in the practice of 
the profession of law. Though he had been promi- 
nent in political affairs for many years he had held 
no previous office excepting the collectorship of the 
port of New York (1871-1879), but he had rendered 
valuable aid during the war in raising, arming and 
transporting the quota of troops furnished to the 
Union armies by the State of his adoption. In pol- 
itics he belonged to the " stalwart " wing of the Re- 
publican party which had advocated the renomina- 
tion of Grant. 

Garfield's death served to direct general attention 
to what had already been recognized by some few as 
a growing evil in the conduct of public business. 
Since Jackson's time every incoming President had 
been besieged by applicants for office, and the cus- 
tom had become deeply rooted to change with each 
administration the great majority of office-holders. 
With the growth in population and settled territory 
the number of offices had of necessity also increased, 
so that there were now a much larger number of 



THE CIVIL SERVICE AND THE MORMONS. 



143 



positions to be filled than in the earlier years of the 
government, and the pressure for appointment be- 
came correspondingly more severe. The result was 
in every way bad. Too much of the time of the 
Presidents and of prominent officials was consumed 
in considering the various claims presented for this 
or that place. Patronage became a power in decid- 
ing nominations and elections. Office-holders knew 
that they could better their chances 
of retention and promotion by zeal- 
ous party work than by a diligent 
discharge of their regular duties. 
Public business was not performed 
with the same care that private bus- 
iness was, as there was not the same 
incentive to faithfulness in the one 
case that there was in the other. It 
suffered also from the constant re- 
placement of experienced men by 
inexperienced ones, as well as from 
incompetent and negligent place- 
holders who secured a footing in the 
service through the favor of some in- 
fluential party manager. All these 
and other objections to the four- 
yearly scramble for office had been 
felt by the few but not by the 
many, until Guiteau's miserable bul- 
let forced them upon the mind of 
every one. That created a popular 
sentiment which demanded some 
remedy for these evils, and out of 
respect to that sentiment a law was 
-enacted in 1883 providing for non- 
partisan appointments to the lower 
grade of offices by competitive ex- 
aminations. There has in consequence been some 
improvement since then in the civil service, but not 
nearly as much as the friends of the reform desire 
or hope in time to obtain. 

Another reform was also attempted in this ad- 
ministration which, like that of the civil service, 
has been only partially successful. This was the 
suppression of polygamy among the Mormons in the 
Territory of Utah. The Mormons are a religious 
body founded in 1830 by a man named Joseph Smith, 
■who claimed to be a prophet, and to have received 
a new revelation from God in the»" Book of Mor- 
mon " discovered by him (he said) buried in the 



earth. Among the beliefs of these Mormons was 
that a man not only might but that he ought to have 
several wives — which is what the word " polygamy" 
means. The sect first established itself in Missouri, 
but public disfavor soon drove it out of that State. 
It then settled in Illinois, but there it was as rough- 
ly treated as in Missouri, and so (in 1844) it bought 
a large tract of land in Utah and removed thither. 




THE MORMON TABERNACLE. 

The United States government has many times en- 
deavored to compel the Mormons to gi%'e up their 
objectionable marriage custom, but has never suc- 
ceeded. 

In 1882 Congress renewed the attempt by pass- 
ing a much more severe law than any that had 
previously been enacted for the punishment of those 
convicted of polygamy. This law, it is thought, has 
checked the evil a little, but has by no means put 
an end to it. Were it not for polygamy, Utah 
would long ago have been given statehood, as its 
population is much greater than that of many of 
the States already in the Union. 



JJ.4 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE MOST RECENT EVENTS. 



Though Mr. Arthur's administration was gener- 
ally considered a satisfactory one by his party and 
by the country, he failed to secure a nomination for a 
second term, the choice falling upon James G. Blaine, 




JAMES G. BLAINE. 

■who had been Secretary of State during Garfield's 
few months of office and who, prior to that, had 
been United States Senator and Congressman from 
Maine. There was, however, on various grounds, 
a good deal of opposition to Mr. Blaine among 
the Republicans and as a consequence the Dem- 
ocratic candidate, Mr. Cleveland, was elected. 

Grover Cleveland, the first Democrat to be chosen 
President since Buchanan (twenty-four years be- 
fore) was replaced by Lincoln, had been in public 
life but a comparatively short time when he attained 
the presidency. The attention of his fellow-citi- 
zens had been first drawn to him by his excellent 
management of the aflfairs of Buffalo while Mayor 
of that city. This had induced the Democrats of 
New York to nominate him in 1SS2 for the gover- 
norship of that State. The enormous majority of 
one hundred and ninety-two thousand by which he 
was elected to this office at once gave him a fore- 
most place as a popular leader and two years later 
earned for him the presidential nomination and 
succession. 

His first executive act on entering upon his duties 



was to sign the commission restoring to General 
Grant the military rank which the latter had re- 
signed on becoming President in 1869. The bill 
authorizing President Cleveland to do this was. 
passed by Congress during the closing hours of Mr. 
Arthur's term, but out of courtesy to his successor 
Mr. Arthur left to Mr. Cleveland the privilege of is- 
suing the commission. The country cordially ap- 
proved of this renewed expression by its represen- 
tatives of its appreciation and gratitude for Grant's 
services, but he did not long enjoy the honor which 
had thus a second time been conferred upon him, 
as on July 23, 1S85, he died at Mount McGregor, 
N. Y., from an incurable cancer in the mouth. 

Another act of Mr. Cleveland's which met with, 
almost as much popular applause was his signature, 
just before he went out of office (1889), to a bill cre- 
ating four more States, the largest number ever 
admitted to theUnion at any one time. These 
were the States of Washington, Montana, North 
Dakota and South Dakota. The first of these had 
been under territoral government since 1853 and 
had been claimed (with Oregon and Idaho) as one 
of our possessions since the explorations made by 
Lewis and Clarke in 1804. Great Britain disputed 
the claim until 1846, when the question was adjust- 
ed by treaty. Itssettlement was first stimulated by 
the discovery of gold in the California country and 
was rapidly hastened by the building of the Pacific 
railroads. The fertility of its soil is remarkable and 
it will undoubtedly soon become one of the rich- 
est of our agricultural States. The two Dakotas 
and Montana were all taken from the Louisiana 
purchase and had been organized as territories 
since 1861 and 1864 respectively, the Dakotas being 
under one government and undivided until their 
admission as States. Montana's wealth is chiefly 
in its mines; that of the Dakotas in their grain 
production. Washington and the Dakotas had 
been entitled from their population to statehood 
for a number of years before they received it, but 
Congressional disagreements kept it from them un- 
til the present time. The addition of these four 
stars to the American flag in the very year that 
marked the completion of the first century of the 
Constitution was considered by every one a most 
happy coincidence and afforded a further proof of 



THE MOST RECENT EVENTS. 



145 



the great expansion of our country during these 
hundred years — the original thirteen States having 
now grown to three and a half times that number. 

The differences between Canada and the United 
States regarding the fisheries off the coast of the 
former country, which had been disposed of for a 
time by the Washington treaty of 1871, were re- 
vived during President Cleveland's administra- 
tion and caused a little feeling between the people 
of the two nations. An effort was made to settle 
them by a fresh agreement drawn up by represen- 
tatives appointed by England, the Dominion of 



al of the tariff discussion. The finances of the natioa 
were at this time in a very peculiar condition. 
Owing to the rapid growth of the population and of 
the business of the country the revenue of the gov- 
ernment had become very large and greatly in ex- 
cess of all its needs. The surplus could no longer 
be applied, as it had been before, to the payment of 
bonds of the United States, because all the bonds 
that were due had been redeemed and the owners- 
of the bonds which had not yet matured did not 
wish them paid, as they preferred that investment 
of their money to any other. In consequence of 




GROVER CLEVELAND. 



Canada and our government, but the treaty which 
they drafted did not meet with the approval of the 
United States Senate (whose consent is needed to 
give effect to any treaty), and so the difficulties 
have not yet been removed. A temporary arrange- 
ment (called a modus vivendi), however, has been 
mede by which any serious trouble is avoided until 
a permanent settlement of the matter can be effect- 
ed by a treaty satisfactory to all the parties. 

But neither the question of admitting the new 
States, on which the American people were practical- 
ly agreed, nor the Canadian fishery dispute, on which 
they held decidedly different opinions, excited any- 
thing like the interest which was aroused by a renew- 



this the surplus revenue began to accumulate in 
the national treasury and the government found it- 
self with more money on its hands than it knew what 
to do with, and the prospect of having still more from 
year to year. President Cleveland, thereupon, in a 
message sent to Congress when it met in December, 
1887, recommended a reduction in the taxes, espe- 
cially in the customs duties, so that the national in- 
come should not exceed the national expenditures 
and the surplus cease to grow any larger. The 
Democratic party adopted his views and prepared 
a bill giving effect to them. This the Republicans 
opposed from the protectionist standpoint that it 
would injure the manufacturing industries of tlie: 



146 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



r.ountry. They proposed instead to increase the 
expenditures by morehberal pensions, by more gen- 
erous appropriations for internal improvements, 
coast defences and naval vessels and by repaying to 
loyal States some of the money contributed by them 
for the prosecution of the war. They also proposed 
to slightly reduce the revenue by cutting down or 
abolishing altogether the few internal taxes still in 
force, and which are now chiefly limited to those 
levied on the manufacture of tobacco and malt and 
spirituous liquors. Though the schedule advocated 
by the Democrats would only have reduced the 
imports on an average a little more than five per 



land's popular majority was larger than it had been 
in 1884, he failed, by a change in the votes of some 
States, to secure the electoral majority. According- 
ly, on March 4, 1889, Benjamin Harrison became the 
twenty-third President of the United States. 

In entering upon the second century of its exist- 
ence the United States finds its people united, con- 
tented, and prosperous; at profound peace with all 
the world and looked up to and respected by every 
nation on the face of the globe. During its short 
period of life it has made far greater progress in ev- 
ery direction than was ever before made in the same 




BENJAMIN HARRISON. 



cent., which they claimed would not injure Ameri- 
can manufactories, it was the principle and not the 
amount of tariff reduction which the Republicans 
fought. The question was eagerly debated in Con- 
gress, in the newspapers, on the platform and by 
the people for a year, and became the principal 
issue at the presidential election in 1888. At that 
election Mr. Cleveland was renominated by the 
Democrats and General Harrison, a grandson of 
the ninth President, and a former Senator from 
Indiana, was put forward in opposition to him by 
the Republicans. The campaign was vigorously 
conducted by both sides and proved nearly as ex- 
citing a one as that of fifty years before when the 
elder Harrison was a candidate. The result was a 
victory for the Republicans, for though Mr. Cleve- 



interval of time by any country since history began. 
The poor and the oppressed of every land have 
found within it a welcome and a home and a chance 
to make for themselves such a future as they could 
never have hoped to obtain in the place of their 
birth. Self-rule has been tried on a gigantic scale 
and proved to be not only a possible but the most 
desirable form, of government yet attempted by 
mankind. What the future has to disclose it is idle 
to guess, but we may feel confident that the same 
wisdom and strength which has enabled our peo- 
ple to overcome their difficulties in the past will not 
fail them in conquering those to come, and long be- 
fore another hundred years have rolled by we may 
rest assured that the American nation will be far 
ahead in the race for the leadership of the world. 



TABLE OF THE PRESIDENTS. 



147 



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148 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



TABLE OF ADMISSION OF STATES. 



1 Delaware accepted the Constitution Dec 

2 Pennsylvania 

3 New Jersey 

4 Georgia 

5 Connecticut 

6 Massachusetts 

7 Maryland 

8 South Carolina 

9 New Hampshire 

10 Virginia 

11 New York 

12 North Carolina 

13 Rhode Island 



14 Vermont admitted to the Union Mar. 4, 

15 Kentucky " " " 

16 Tennessee " " " 

17 Ohio " " " 

18 Louisiana " " " 

19 Indiana " " " 

20 Mississippi " " " 

21 Illinois " " " 

22 Alabama " " " '. 

23 Maine " " " 

24 M issouri " " " 

25 Arkansas " " " 

26 M ichigan " " " 

27 Florida " " " 

28 Texas " " " , 

29 Iowa " " " 

30 Wisconsin " " " 

31 California " " " 

32 Minnesota " " " 

33 Oregon " " " 

34 Kansas " " " 

35 West Virginia " " " 

36 Nevada " " " 

37 Nebraska " " " 



39 North Dakota 

40 South Dakota 

41 Montana 

42 Washington 



Dec. 


7. I 


Dec. 


12, 1 


Dec. 


18, I 


Jan. 


2 I 


Jan. 


9. ' 


Feb. 


6, I 


Apr. 


28, 1 


May 


23, I 


June 


21, I 


June 25, 1 


July 


26, I 


Nov. 


21, I 


May 


29. 1 


Mar. 


4. I 


June 


t. I 


June 


I, I 


Nov. 


29, I 


Apr. 


30, I 


Dec. 


II, I 


Dec. 


10, 1 


Dec. 


.3. I 


Dec. 


14. I 


Mar. 


«5. I 


Aug. 


10, 1 


June 


15. I 


Jan. 


26. I 


Mar. 


3- ' 


Dec. 


29. 1 


Dec. 


28. I 


May 


29. I 


Sept. 


9, I. 


May 


II, li 


Feb. 


I4> li 


Jan. 


29, li 


June 


19. li 


Oct. 


31, i{ 


Mar. 


I, If 


Aug. 


I, li 


Feb. 


22. \l 


Feb. 


22, li 


Feb. 


22, li 


Feb. 


22, li 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



149 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE/ 



Discovery of America by Columbus 1492 

Discovery of South America by Americus Vespu- 

cius 1497 

Discovery of Nortli America by the Cabots 1497 

Discovery of the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the French. 1 504 

Discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon 1512 

Discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa 14X3 

Exploration of the Atlantic coast by Verrazzano . . . 1524 

Exploration of the St. Lawrence River by Cartier . 1534 

Attempt of the]French to settle on the St. Lawrence. 1540 

Discovery of the Mississippi River by De Soto .... 1541 
Attempt by the French to settle at Port Royal 

(S. C.) 1562 

Attempt by the French to settle at Fort Carolina 

(Fla.) : 1564 

■Settlement of St. Augustine (Fla.) by the Spanish . 1565 

Voyage of Frobisher 1576 

Voyage of Drake 1579 

Settlement of Santa F6 (N. M.) by the Spanish .... 1582 

Attempt by Gilbert to settle in Newfoundland .... 1583 

First attempt to settle on Roanoke Island (N. C.) . . 15S5 

Second attempt to settle on Roanoke Island (N. C.) 1587 

Attempt to settle at Buzzard's Bay (Mass.) 1602 

Settlement of Acadia (Nova Scotia) by the French . 1605 

Settlement of Jamestown (Va.) 1607 

Settlement of Quebec by the French 1608 

Discovery of the Hudson River 1609 

Settlement of New York City by the Dutch 1614 

Cultivation of tobacco begun in Virginia 1 61 5 

First American legislature met at Jamestown 161 9 

Introduction of slavery into America (Virginia). . . . 1619 
Settlement of New Plymouth (Mass.) by the Pil- 
grims 1620 

Cultivation of cotton begun in Virginia 1621 

Indian massacre at Jamestown 1622 

Settlement of Dover and Portsmouth (N. H.) 1623 

Virginia made a Royal Colony 1624 

Settlement of Salem (Mass.) by the Puritans 1628 

Settlement of Charlestown (Mass.) by the Puritans. 1629 

Settlement of Boston by the Puritans 1630 

Settlement of St. Mary's (Md.) by the Roman Cath- 
olics , ; 1634 

Settlement of Say brook, Windsor and Wethersfield 

(Conn.) ; 1635 

Banishment of Roger Williams from Massachusetts. 1635 

Settlement of Hartford (Conn.) 1636 

Settlement of Providence (R. I.) 1636 

Founding of Harvard University 1636 

Pequot War in Connecticut 1637 

Settlement of Wilmington (Del.) 1638 

Settlement of New Haven (Conn.) 1638 

Indian disturbance in New York 1643 



Grant of charter to Rhode Island 1644 

Second Indian massacre in Virginia 1644 

Boundary between New York and Connecticut ar- 
ranged 1650 

Passage of Navigation Act 1651 

Conquest of Delaware by the Dutch of New York . 1655 

Persecution of the Quakers in Massachusetts 1656 

Grant of charter to Connecticut 1662 

Settlement of Elizabeth (N.J.) 1664 

Conquest of New York by the English 1664 

Settlement of North Carolina on'the_Chowan River. 1664 
Union of Connecticut and New Haven Colonies. . . 1665 

Settlement of Clarendon County (N. C.) 1665 

Settlement of Newark (N. J.) 1666 

Settlement of South Carolina on the Ashley River. 1670 

Holland's brief reconquest of New York 1673 

King Philip's War in New England? 1675 

Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia 1676 

Settlement of Burlington (N. J.) 1677 

Settlement of Charleston (S. C.) 1680 

Settlement of Pennsylvania begun by Penn 1682 

Grant of Delaware to Penn by the Duke of York. . . 16S2 

Settlement of Philadelphia 1683 

Settlement of Annapolis (Md.) 16S3 

Andros appointed Governor of New England 1 686 

Union of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colo- 
nies' 1691 

Founding of the College of William and Mary (Va.) 1692 

Witchcraft delusion in Salem (Mass.) 1692 

Founding of Yale University 1 701 

Settlement of Detroit (Mich.) by the French 1701 

New Jersey made a Royal Colony 1702 

Settlement of New Orleans (La.) 1718 

Settlement of Baltimore (Md.) 1729 

Separation of North and South Carolina 1 729 

Birth of George Washington Feb. 22, 1732 

Settlement of Savannah (Ga.) 1 733 

Negro plot feared in New York 1 740 

Founding of the College of New Jersey 1746 

Formation of the Ohio Company 1749 

Founding of the University of Pennsylvania 1749 

Georgia made a Royal Colony 1752 

Founding of Columbia College 1754 

Outbreak of the French and Indian War 1754 

Capture of Fort Necessity by the French 1754 

Defeat of Braddock by the French 1755 

Capture of Louisberg from the French 1758 

Capture of Fort Du Quesne from the French 1 758 

Defeat of the English and Americans at Ticonderoga. 1758 

Capture of Fort Frontenac from the French 1758 

Surrender of Quebec by the French 1 759 

Surrender of Montreal by the French 1760 



^5° 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



End of French and Ind ian War 

Cession of Canada to Great Britain 

Boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland 

(" Mason and Dixon's line ") arranged 

Passage of the Stamp Act 

Repeal of the Stamp Act 

Passage of the new tax bill 

Arrival of British troops at Boston 

Repeal of duties excepting on tea 

Destruction of tea in Boston harbor 

Closing of the Port of Boston by Parliament 

Meeting of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia. 

Battle of Lexington April 19, 

Capture of Ticonderoga by the Americans. May lo, 
Capture of Crown Point by the Americans. May 12, 
Washington appointed Commander-in-chief. June 15, 

Battle of Bunker Hill June 17, 

Capture of Montreal by the Americans. . . .Nov. 13, 

Repulse of the Americans at Quebec Dec. 31, 

Evacuation of Boston by the British March 17, 

Declaration of Independence July 4, 

Battle of Long Island Aug. 27, 

Evacuation of New York by the Americans. Sept. 14, 

Battle of Trenton Dec. 25, 

Battle of Princeton Jan. 3, 

Capture of Ticonderoga by the British July 5, 

Battle of Bennington Aug. 16, 

Battle of Brandy wine Sept. 11, 

Battle of Bemis Heights Sept. 19, 

Capture of Philadelphia by the British. . . .Sept. 26, 

Battle of Germantown Oct. 4, 

Battle of Stillwater Oct. 7, 

Surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga Oct. 17, 

Treaty with France Feb. 6, 

Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British. .June 18, 

Battle of Monmouth June 28, 

Capture of Savannah by the British Dec. 29, 

Naval victory of Paul Jones Sept. 23, 

Repulse of Americans at Savannah Sept. 23, 

Capture of Charleston (S. C.) by the British, 

May 12, 

Battle of Camden (N. C.) Aug. 16, 

Treason of Benedict Arnold Sept., 

Execution of Major Andr6 Oct. 2, 

Adoption of the Articles of Confederation. March i, 

Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown Oct. 19, 

Treaty of peace with Great Britain Sept. 3, 

Evacuation of New York by the British. . .Nov. 25, 
Meeting of the Constitutional Convention at Phila- 
delphia May 25, 

Adoption of the Ordinance of 1787 July 13, 

Adoption of the Constitution by the Conven- 
tion Sept. 17, 

Adoption of the Constitution by the ninth State, 

June 21, 
Meeting of the first Congress at New York . March 4, 
Inauguration of President Washington. . . .April 30, 



763 
763 

763 
765 
766 

767 

768 
770 
773 
774 
774 
775 
775 
775 
775 
775 
775 
775 
776 
776 
776 
776 
776 
777 
777 
777 
777 
777 
777 
777 
777 
777 
778 
778 
778 
778 
779 
779 

7S0 
780 
7S0 
780 
7S1 
781 
7S3 
783 

787 
787 

787 

78S 
789 
789 



Adoption of the first ten Amendments to the Con- 
stitution 1791 

Admission of the State of Vermont Feb. 18, 1791 

Admission of the State of Kentucky June i, 1792 

Invention of the cotton-gin by Whitney 1/93 

Admission of the State of Tennessee June i, 1796 

Inauguration of President John Adams. . .March 4, 1797 
Adoption of the eleventh Amendment to the Consti- 
tution 1 79S 

War with France threatened 1 798 

Passage of the Alien and Sedition Laws June, 1798 

Capture of " L'Insurgente," by the "Constella- 
tion" Feb. 10, 1799 

Death of Washington Dec. 14, 1799 

Removal of the national capital to Washington, 

June 15, 1800 

Inauguration of President Jefferson March 4, 1801 

Declaration of War by Tripoli May 14, 1801 

Admission of the State of Ohio Nov. 29, 1802 

Purchase of Louisiana from France April 30, 1803 

Adoption of the twelfth Amendment to the Consti- 
tution 1804 

Expedition of Lewis and Clarke through the Oregon 

country , 1 804 

Destruction of the " Philadelphia" by Lieut. Deca- 
tur Feb. 3, 1804 

Duel between Hamilton and Burr July II, 1804 

Treaty of peace with Tripoli June, 1805 

Blockade of France proclaimed by England. . .May, 1806 
Blockade of Great Britain proclaimed by France, 

Nov., iSo6 

Burr accused of treason 1807 

Invention of the steamboat by Fulton . 1807 

British Orders in Council forbidding trade with 

France Nov. 11, 1807 

Napoleon's Milan Decree forbidding trade with 

Great Britain Dec. 17, 1807 

Passage of the Embargo Act Dec. 22, 1807 

Importation of slaves forbidden 1S08 

Passage of the Non-Intercourse Act March i, 1809 

Inauguration of President Madison March 4, 1S09 

Battle of Tippecanoe Nov. 7, 181 1 

Admission of the State of Louisiana April 30, 1812 

Declaration of war against Great Britain. . June 18, tSi2 

The " Essex" captures the " Alert" Aug. 13, lSl2 

Surrender of Detroit by Hull to the British. Aug. 16, 1S12 
The "Constitution" captures the " Guerriere," 

Aug. 19, 1812 

The "Wasp " captures the " Frolic " Oct. 18, 1812 

The " Wasp " captured by the " Poictiers". .Oct. 18, 1812 
The "United States" captures the " Macedonian," 

Oct. 25, 1812 
The " Constitution" captures the " Java". .Dec. 29, 1812 

Massacre at the Raisin River Jan. 22, 1813 

The " Hornet" captures the " Peacock". . .Feb. 24, 1S13 
The "Chesapeake" captured by the "Shannon," 

June I, 1813 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



151 



Massacre at Fort Mims Aug. 30, 

Perry's victory on Lake Erie Sept. 10, 

Battle of the Thames Oct. 5, 

Battle of Tohopeka March 27, 

The " Essex " captured by the " Phoebe " and the 

"Cherub" March 2S, 

The " Peacock" captures the" Epervier". .April 29, 
The " Wasp " captures the " Reindeer "... June 28, 

Battle of Lundy's Lane July 25, 

Burning of the City of Washington Aug. 24, 

The "Wasp " captures the " Avon" Sept. I, 

Macdonough's victory on Lake Champlain.Sept. 11, 

Hartford Convention Dec. 1 5, 

Treaty of peace with Great Britain Dec. 24, 

Battle of New Orleans . _ Jan. 8, 

The" President " captured by a British fleet. Jan. 15, 
The " Constitution" captures the "Cyane" and the 

" Levant" Feb. 20, 

The " Hornet" captures the " Penguin". March 23, 
The " Peacock" captures the " Nautilus" .June 30, 

Admission of the State of Indiana Dec. 11, 

Inauguration of President Monroe March 4, 

Admission of the State of Mississippi Dec. 10, 

Admission of the State of Illinois Dec. 3, 

Admission of the State of Alabama Dec. 14, 

Passage of the Missouri Compromise Act. March 3, 

Admission of the State of'Maine March 15, 

Purchase of Florida from Spain July i , 

Admission of the State of Missouri Aug. 10, 

First use in America of illuminating gas 

Promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine 

Visit of Lafayette to the United States 

Adoption of a protective tariff 

Inaugurationof President John Q. Adams. .March 4, 

Completion of the Erie Canal Oct. , 

Death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson . . July 4, 

First railroads built in America 

Adoption of a higher protective tariff 

Inauguration of President Jackson March 4, 

Sect of Mormons founded 

Beginning of the spoils system 

Black Hawk War 

Adoption of new protective tariff 

Attempt at nulliiication by South Carolina 

Adoption of a compromise tariff 

Removal of government money from U. S. Bank. . 

Disagreement with France 

Invention of the reaping machine . , 

Invention of the revolver 

Beginning of the war with the Seminole Indians. . . 

Great fire in New York City 

National debt paid off 

Admission of the State of Arkansas June 15, 

Financial panic 

Admission of the State of Michigan Jan. 26, 

Inauguration of President Van Buren. . . . March 4, 
Inauguration of President W. H. Harrison. March 4, 



S13 
S13 
813 
S14 

814 
814 
814 
814 
814 
814 
S14 
S14 
814 
815 
815 

815 
815 
815 
816 
S17 
S17 
81S 
8ig 
820 
820 
S21 
S21 
822 
823 
824 
824 
825 
825 
S26 
827 
82S 
829 
S30 
8 30 
832 
832 
S32 
833 
833 
834 
S34 

S35 
835 
835 
S3 5 
S36 
S37 
837 
837 
841 



Death of President Harrison April 6, 1841 

Inauguration of President Tyler April 6, 1841 

Boundary and extradition treaty with Great Britain. 1842 

End of the war with the Seminole Indians 1842 

Invention of the electric telegraph by Morse 1845 

Annexation of Texas March i, 1845 

Admission of the State of Florida March 3, 1845 

Inauguration of President Polk March 4, 1845 

Admission of the State of Texas Dec. 29, 1845 

Invention of the sewing-machine by Elias Howe . . . 1846 

Northwestern boundary decided 1846 

Passage of low tariff act 1846 

First use of ether in surgery 1846 

Declaration of war against Mexico May 13, 1846 

Capture of Monterey Sept. 24, 1846 

Admission of the State of Iowa Dec. 28, 1846 

Battle of Buena Vista Feb. 24, 1847 

Capture of Vera Cruz March 27, 1847 

Battle of Cerro Gordo April 18, 1847 

Capture of Chapultepec Sept. 13, 1847 

Capture of the City of Mexico Sept. 14, 1847 

Discovery of gold in California Jan. 19, 1848- 

Treaty of peace with Mexico Feb. 2, 1848- 

Admission of the State of Wisconsin May 29, 1848 

Inauguration of President Taylor March 5, 1849 

Death of President Taylor July 9, 1850 

Inauguration of President Fillmore July 10, 185a 

Passage of fugitive slave law Sept., 1S50 

Admission of the State of California Sept. 9, 1850 

Inauguration of President Pierce March 4, 1853. 

Repeal of the Missouri Compromise May, 1854 

Financial panic 1857 

Dred Scott decision 1857 

Inauguration of President Buchanan March 4, 1857 

Discovery of silver in Nevada 1858 

Admission of the State of Minnesota May 11, 185S 

Admission of the State of Oregon Feb. 14, 1859. 

Discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania Aug., 1859 

Raid of John Brown Oct., 1859 

Secession of South Carolina Dec. 20, iS6o. 

Secession of ten other States 1 861 

Admission of the State of Kansas Jan. 29, 1861 

Organ izai ion of the Confederacy Feb. 4, 1861 

Inauguration of President Lincoln March 4, i86r 

Evacuation of Fort Sumter April 13, 1861. 

First bloodshed of the Civil War at Baltimore, 

April 19, 1S61 
Richmond made the Confederate capital.. July 20, i86i 

Battle of Bull Run July 21, 1861 

Capture of Roanoke Island Feb. 8. 1862 

Battle between the " Monitor" and the " Merrimac," 

March 9, 1862 

Battle of Shiloh April 6, 1862 

Capture of New Orleans April 25, 1862 

Capture of Corinth May 30, 1862 

Bragg"s invasion of Tennessee and Kentucky. Sept., 1862 
Batik- of Antietam Sept. 17, 1862; 



^52 



HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Battle of Fredericksburg Dec. 13 

Emancipation Proclamation Jan. i 

Battle of Chancellorsville May 2 

Admission of the State of West Virginia. . June 20, 

Seizure of Mexico by the French July 

Battle of Gettysburg July 3 

Capture of Vicksburg July 4 

Battle of Chickamauga Sept. 19 

Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge 

Nov. 24 

Battles of the Wilderness May, 

Battles at Spottsylvania Court-House May 

Battle of Cold Harbor June 3 

Battle between the " Kearsarge" and the "Ala- 
bama" June 19 

Capture of Atlanta Sept. 2, 

Battle of Winchester Sept. 19, 

Battle of Cedar Creek Oct. 19 

Admission of the State of Nevada Oct. 31 

Battle of Nashville Dec. 15 

Capture of Savannah Dec. 21 

Capture of Fort Fisher Jan. 15 

Capture of Charleston Feb. : S 

Battle of Goldsboro March ig 

Capture of Petersburg April 2 

Capture of Richmond April 3 

Surrender of Lee April 9 

Assassination of Lincoln April 14 

Inauguration of President Johnson April 15 

Surrender of Johnston '. April 26 

Capture of Jefferson Davis May it 

Adoption of the thirteenth Amendment to the Con 

stitution Dec. 

Telegraphic cable laid between Europe and Amer- 
ica July, 

Passage of Reconstruction Acts March 

Evacuation of Mexico by the French March 

Passage of Tenure-of-Office Act March 

Admission of the State of Nebraska March i 

Declaration of amnesty by the President. . .Sept. 8 
Purchase of Alaska from Russia Oct, 9 



1862 
1863 
1863 
1S63 
1863 
1863 
1863 
1B63 

1863 
1864 
1S64 
1S64 

1864 
1864 
1864 
1864 

1S64 
1864 
1S64 
1865 
J 865 
1865 

1865 
1865 
1S65 
1865 
1S65 
1865 
1S65 

1S65 

1866 
1867 
1S67 
1867 
1867 
1S67 
1S67 



Impeachment of President Johnson Jan. 24, 186S 

Adoption of the fourteenth Amendment to the 

Constitution Ju'yi 1868 

Inauguration of President Grant March 4, 1869 

Completion of the Central Pacific Railroad. May 10, i86g 
Adoption of the fifteenth Amendment to the Con- 
stitution March, 1870 

Treaty of Washington (with Great Britain) .May 8, 1871 

Great fire in Chicago Oct. 7, 1871 

Award of " Alabama " damages by Geneva tribunal, 

Sept. 14, 1872 

Great fire in Boston Nov. 9, 1872 

Financial panic ^ 1873 

Demonetization of silver 1873 

Opening of Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, 

May 10, 187'' 

Admission of the State of Colorado Aug. i, 1S76 

Meeting of the Presidential Electoral Commission, 

Feb., 1877 

Invention of the telephone by Bell 1S77 

Inauguration of President Hayes March 4, 1877 

Railroad riots July, 1877 

First use of the electric light 1878 

Remonetization of silver 1S7S 

Resumption of specie payments Jan. 1, 1S7M 

Inauguration of President Garfield March 4, 18S1 

Shooting of President Garfield July 2, 1S81 

Death of President Garfield Sept. 19, i8Sr 

Inauguration of President Arthur Sept. 20, 18S1 

Passage of anti-polygamy law 18S2 

Passage of civil service reform law 1SS3 

Inauguration of President Cleveland March 4, 1SS5 

Rank of General restored to Grant March, 1885 

Death of Grant July 23, 1S85 

Fisheries dispute with Canada 1888 

Tariff agitation 1SS8 

Passage of Act (or admission of States of North 
Dakota, South Dakota, Washington and Mon- 
tana Feb. 22, 1 889 

Inaguration of President Benjamin Harrison, 

March 4, 1889 



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